Fantasy Legacies: World at War - In Character

[Kumii]

Skyla the Dark Flash and Mika the Flaming SpearLocation: Iron Bridge
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
Skyla took a minute to think as Mateo went over his plan. It was a very good one indeed, playing to everyone's strengths. Smart. Then he turned to Skyla looking for some sort of guidance, "Wha- Uh.. yeah, it works I guess. It plays to mostly everyone's strengths. Minus mine cause I'll be using my new bow. Mika?" She turned to Mika for his thoughts, "Your thoughts?"

Mika listened as Mateo explained his plan, then Skyla asked for his thoughts, "Hmm... first off, cool bird, Mateo." He took a minute to think, "So Rai and I will be doing chain attacks, acting as the main attack pair. You and Sky would be long range support and Nia and Cora are backup damage?"

Mika nodded then slammed his fist in the palm of his hand, "It works!" He extended a hand to Rai, "Well, let's see what you and I can do. Eh, Thunderous Hunter?" Mika had a smile on his face as he said that.

Tiche of the Black KnifeLocation: Unknown area of Ironshire
Mentions: AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
TIche had to react at lightning speed to avoid the flurry of attacks that Rori had launched. She managed to do so with precision timing and a hair between swings and the fire.

Tiche elegantly and swiftly did a standing backflip and landed on her feet. She didn't even find it worth it to unsheathe her own blade. She did a mock bite towards Rori in a playful, "Meeeee-owwwww, so the kitty has claws! What fun!" Tiche slowly took her knife from its sheathe to reveal its odd shaping, "I don't give a damn who I remind you of nor do I care if you're angry at me. You're not my target." She pointed her knife at Castro, "HE... is who I'm after. My emploer wants his 18 million yen bounty." She brought her blade over her shoulder, "But if you want to get in my way..." She had a dark look on her face and swung her knife downwards, releasing a wave of Death from her knife's Rune of Death, flying towards Rori, "You will pay the blood price, little kitty."

After that Tiche swiftly moved to quickly and silently close the distance between her and Rori to perform a upwards kick, which Tiche transitioned into a upwards slice into a backflip to her original position. Where she just stared down Rori and Castro. She was in full-on battle mode now. Thanks Rori.

 

[SharkBark]

Mood: Alert and Ready to Battle

Rai Ikari

Thunderous Hunter

Bridge to Iron Fortress

"Nice job!" Rai yelled out to Skyla as she killed the Knight's horse with a well-placed stab with her sword. One foe down, one to go. It'd all be over soon. Less fighting dumb ass enemies, and more catching up and having fun.

Rai looked ahead at the wall of flames coming at him. Whenever the Knight got mad, it'd let out some move that would create more distance between him and the team. But they had long ranged attacks too, not just melee. Rai couldn't react fast enough to leap over the wave, so he was sent sprawling for a bit but was able to land upright.

"Let's formulate a plan B shall we?" Rai suddenly heard Mika say. He could've sworn he just saw him get hit by the wave, guess he was durable enough to sustain the attack.

"Alright, what do you suggest?" Rai asked.

Before he could say something, they all found themselves dodging another Knight attack before continuing their conversation. Rai was too distracted by this to see Mateo's thumbs up or him getting his arm on fire and patting it down.

"Thanks." Rai said as Mateo came over and helped him up.

Seeming to answer Rai's previous question, Mateo devised the team's plan B. It involved everyone getting into pairs and taking different tasks towards defeating the Knight. Nia and Cora, Rai and Mika, and Skyla with Mateo. Nia and the cat would be close range, Rai would deal heavy damage alongside Mika, and Mateo and Skyla would do long ranged attacks. He also made another plan too, which involved Nia and Cora attacking the Knight while he was distracted by the other pairs.

Mateo looked to Skyla for help, and Skyla agreed then looked Mika for his validation. Rai now started to notice how reliant the others were on each other's words and was a bit confused. If you're going to try to sound like you know what you're doing, at least stick to your opinion and don't go looking for other ones. Mika agreed with the plan and repeated the plan back to everyone. With a slam to his palm, he turned to Rai and said,

"Well, let's see what you and I can do. Eh, Thunderous Hunter?"

Rai looked towards the enraged Knight and then back at the group.

"It's a good idea, just kinda weak." Rai offered his opinion. "Not that we can't do good damage, it's just that we're gonna be taking a lot of risks. With this plan, if one person goes down, the entire team does. Especially if it's one of the close ranged pairs. If Mika goes down, who's going to make openings for me? If Skyla gets taken out by the Knight, it'll just be Mateo and his Phoenix. And if the Nia goes down, that pair is doomed, the cat doesn't seem too capable on his own."

Rai looked back at the Knight to make sure it wasn't attacking.

"Mateo and Skyla barely know how to use their new items too. There are too many risks at hand." Rai sighed. "Listen, what I'm saying is, be careful here. We just got the team back together; we don't want to lose someone due to this plan. Just what I said in mind, alright? This is pretty dangerous."

Kumii AlphaBlueWolf

Code by Serobliss

Mood: Fearful

Castro Smith

Blue-Eyed Bandit

Unknown, Ironshire

"But would you open your eyes, please?"

Castro's heart began to beat a little faster when Akuhei said that. He's catching on... Castro thought. How close is he to me? Is he still at the vent? Did he find Rori? Shit. I shouldn't have left my contacts. Castro contemplated the choices he had at hand. He could open his eyes, but he'd only be revealing himself to the beast, Akuhei. Yet if he kept his eyes closed, suspicion would grow. Castro extended his right foot and kicked Kuragiri's unconscious body that was stuffed underneath a table. The kick pushed it even further underneath it, successfully hiding him.

"Sir, I specifically told you that my eyes are sensitive to light." Castro desperately responded, his poor accent breaking a bit. "I cannot open them."

Seeming to save Castro, it seemed like it was her intention, the Red Eyed woman from earlier appeared from a dark mist and entered the abandoned shop. Castro didn't know that she had entered, and it was so silent too, so he had no initial reaction.

"Miss me...Blue Eyes?" She said, which destroyed any chances of him staying in character. With a heavy sigh, Castro opened and revealed the bright blue eyes that had given him his bandit nickname.

"Guess you caught me, boo-hoo." Castro said. "I thought you were gonna distract this guy, lady."

The woman spoke, but she spoke about things that made Castro's heart skip a beat. She spoke about how she was part demon and how Akuhei didn't know that demons and spirits were the same thing, all irrelevant. What really disturbed Castro was the fact that she said they were buds now, which means Akuhei's dumb ass didn't find them, she led him here. Seems like Rori was right about her, you can't trust just anyone. Maybe he should start listening to her gut instinct now.

Maybe she had heard all of this and it's what caused her to act, but Rori came bursting out of the small closet, flames propelling from her feet, and attempted a stab at Tiche, sending a blast of fire at her with it to seal the deal. But it was useless against her. Tiche easily dodged the attacks with perfect timing at precision with a standing backflip and then she landed perfectly back on her feet.

Rori came up to Castro's side and made a comment about the bow she was wearing, speaking of how that's all he was going to get from her. Then she turned her attention to Tiche and Akuhei, and made some insulting comments to them, and of course being Rori, she just had to add something about his intellect too. Castro was getting sick of these jabs at his IQ, but nevertheless he kept his mouth shut.

Tiche reacted with more jokes towards Rori and then revealed her true intentions. She was here because her "employer" wanted Castro's 18 million yen bounty. ($133,362 in United State Dollars) He was her main target, and if Rori got in her way, she'd have no choice but to strike her down to too. And she acted that out very quickly. Tiche swung downwards with her knife and released sort of wave towards Rori.

Castro quickly acted to save Rori and created a circular shield of ice and stood in front of Rori, absorbing the impact of the wave and successfully saving her. Unfortunate, at the same time Castro got caught up into the rest of the attacks from Tiche. She hit him with an upward kick and then tried for an upwards slice, which Castro barely avoided with by leaning his head back.

"Rori, remind me not to doubt your instincts again." he told her. "You were right about her. Also, please don't respond with something cocky, I'm getting sick of it."

Castro reached over his shoulder to grab his blade and ended up grabbing the air. Shit. His blade was perched next to the vent and his other weapons were in his armored clothing, which he had just taken off. So much for disguises, huh? Ice based weapons weren't going to work against Akuhei, who he was almost certain he might be fighting, so he decided to think this time before fighting a flame user. He would just have to try to make this work with his combat skill and some battle intellect.

Castro analyzed the two opponents before making a plan. Tiche seemed to have the ability to sort of teleport herself into different places with that mist of hers, and quietly too. So, to beat her, they'd have to watch their backs and be alert at all times to defeat her. Akuhei on the other hand would use attacks that had some wide range and fast maneuvers. So, if they were both going to be attacking at the same time, Rori and Castro would have to be quick on their feet and able to dodge quickly and attack at the same time. But that's not going to be good inside of this small shop.

"Rori, we need to try to split them up somehow." he suggested. "It won't be good to try to take them both on in the same room, so it'd be better to draw one of them to another area. I could take one outside to fight, I'm in disguise by my eyes give me away completely. You're not as well-known and infamous as me, so you could also do it. What do you think?" Castro looked back to Akuhei and Tiche, who seemed to be getting ready to attack.

Thud.

Castro's eyes turned to the table that Kuragiri was underneath. An audible, "Ow." could be heard as he slammed his head against the top of the table while trying to standup. Kuragiri crawled out from underneath the table and looked around at the situation at hand. Akuhei was here, some unknown woman was next to him, and Castro and Rori looked ready to battle.

"What the hell did I just wake up into, Castro?" Kuragiri groggily said. "Why is Akuhei here?" He looked at Akuhei again and finally realized. Kuragiri ran behind Castro and Rori. "Shit! He made it here! Is he the only one? Is Kaminari here too? Who's that other lady?! Answer me, man!"'

"Calm down, Kuragiri. Akuhei is the only one here. And that lady here is his new accomplice. Be careful of her. She can teleport around with a mist or something." Castro looked back a Kuragiri with a desperate look. "We're gonna need your help here, man. You have to help someone fight Akuhei while the other fights the lady. Or the other way around, I don't care."

"You want me to fight Akuhei?!" Kuragiri yelled out. "Have you gone fucking crazy, Castro? He'll kill all of us with ease!! Why would I-"

"Kuragiri!" Castro said loudly to shut him up. "Since when were you such a pussy? The Kuragiri I fought alongside with while I was an Onyx Bandit jumped into battle with no hesitation or fear. Did being held captive really turn you into a crybaby?"

Kuragiri stared at Castro with shock. It hurt to hear all that, but deep down he knew he was right. After being taken back into the Seiryoku Empire, he was overwhelmed by fear, which is why he took up killing the weak, because he knew that they couldn't defy him. After a bit of thinking, Kuragiri took a deep breath in and stood between Castro and Rori, giving up his place behind them.

"I guess you're right, Castro. Once again." Kuragiri engulfed his right hand with flames and looked to Rori. "As much as it kills me to say this, I guess we're going to be fighting alongside each other. I think Castro asked you a question? Or at least that's what I heard."

Castro and Kuragiri looked to Rori, waiting for her response to Castro's plan.

Mood: Annoyed

Akuhei

Shugosha

Unknown, Ironshire

Emerging from a dark mist, Tiche suddenly appeared next to Akuhei, making him flinch for a moment.

"Shit. I'm never going to get used to that." Akuhei said as Tiche wrapped an arm around him. She spoke to Castro and told him about how Akuhei didn't know that demons and spirits were the same thing, which made Akuhei blush with embarrassment a bit. Then she mentioned that they were buddies now, which seemed to set off the store owner who she revealed was Blue Eyes.

"So, my suspicions were right." Akuhei said.

Just as she told Castro to open his eyes, someone came bursting from the closet next to Akuhei and attacked Tiche, who quickly dodged the attacks with a well-timed backflip. Akuhei quickly took his two sickles from his coat and held both in one hand. His hands twitched for a moment, but he was able to make them stop on command and calm himself.

Tiche mocked the girl who attacked her and then revealed her intentions. She was here to claim Castro Smith's bounty, or at least bring him harm. Akuhei took a double take when he heard that. He didn't expect Castro to be in danger, he just came to take Kuragiri. Tiche suddenly sent a wave type attack at Rori and then rushed at her and added a quick combo to go with it, all of which Castro either blocked, dodged, or took to the face. Seems like he has a new accomplice. Someone new that he cares about, Blue Eyes doesn't usually protect people like that.

"Mr. Smith, I see you got a new girlfriend." Akuhei quipped, hoping to get an answer on who she was. Just as he had said that his target crawled out from a table. Kuragiri. Kuragiri groggily looked around at first, but once he came to pass, he locked eyes with Akuhei. Akuhei initially gave him a light smile, but Kuragiri responded with pure fear. He ran behind Castro and Rori in hopes of protection from Akuhei.

"Shit, I'm not that bad am I?" Akuhei softly said, a bit offended.

Castro and Kuragiri went on yelling at each other for a bit and then something unexpected happened. Kuragiri stepped forward with intent to battle. His fear was replaced with alertness and a readiness to fight.

"Tiche, we no get what we want easy." Akuhei said. "Well, it depend on you strength."

Kumii AlphaBlueWolf

Code by Serobliss

 

[Kumii]

Skyla the Dark Flash and Mika the Flaming SpearLocation: Iron Bridge
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
Skyla sighed and looked down and away, "You're not wrong, Rai but damn... have a little trust." She looked back at him, "It's not like the bow is the ONLY weapon I have, you know. I do have the bloody big great sword on my back too." She pointed at Rai, her face and tone of voice would be completely serious, "Plus you say Mika will go down like I'm gonna LET him go down."

Mika chimed in, "You say all that as if you don't run the same risk of falling in battle as I do." He joked, "Look, Rai, if you don't like the plan then just sit back and watch the adults do their work. Otherwise, muscle up, buttercup." Mika glanced at Rai, "Every battle we'd run the risk of dying. All of us. This is no different. This isn't the tournament anymore. If you don't like that then you can leave and go home. Are we going to try to intentionally die? No, but sometimes it can't be helped. Everyone here will try and do their best to not let the other one die."

Mika looked back at the Knight, "Sorry for saying that, but I'm stating reality. You can have all this sentimental stuff but sentimentality won't save you if things go awry. That's entirely up to you. No plan ever goes how you intend, you of all people should know that by now. It's good to have a basis but you need to have the ability to 'wing it' so to speak." He paused for a moment, "So I'll ask you again, Rai, do you want to see what we can do together, Thunderous Hunter?" He said, giving Rai another side glance.

Tiche of the Black KnifeLocation: Unknown area of Ironshire
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
Tiche would move her hand along the blade and start to imbue her knife with a fairy poison. Specifically, it was a paralysis poison, "How precious. The Blue Eyed killer protecting an innocent." She gave a dark smile, "How very ironic. A killer killing a killer. Though, I wonder..." She flipped her hood up and a ghostly cloak appeared on her back, "Who's killing who in this situation?"

Tiche was slightly taken aback by Akuhei's comment, "Am I really that infamous? I don't recall ever telling you my name." She shrugged, "Whatever. I like you so I'll let it slide."

"I knew it was you. Why are you back?"

???Location: Rushing towards Tiche...
Mentions: AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
A quadrapedal set of clawed paws were seen running and jumping through the rooftops, 'I hope I'm not too late. She's here... in Ironshire.' The fox thought, 'Why here though? What could she be after this time?' The figure jumped and eclipsed the sun as the silhouette of a nine-tailed fox was briefly seen. It landed, 'I gotta hurry. I can't let her hurt anyone else.'

It stopped at a high point overlooking most of the city. It sniffed around, looking for something before letting out howl that seemed to echo a far bit. Its dark red eyes flashed briefly, "Got you." It jumped from the roof and landed near where Tiche's scent was, it walked in to the store and stood in front of Rori, Kuragiri and Castro between Akuhei and Tiche. It was a nine-tailed fox.

It had yellow fur, dark red eyes, nine tails that waved gracefully behind it and it gave off a gentle heat. The fox looked behind at the trio briefly before turning its attention back to Tiche and Akuhei, "I knew it was you. Why are you back?"

Tiche snarled when the fox appeared, "Ugh, you again. Why are you always getting in my way, you damned fox?!" Tiche seemed more pissed then before. Before she knew it, the fox lunged at Tiche and managed to knock her down. TIche quickly got up but instead of attacking the fox, she suddenly lunged at Castro but the fox reacted quickly enough to bite down on Tiche's arm and stop her attack just inches from his face.

The fox gave Castro a glance from the corner of its eye then threw Tiche at a nearby wall, "You'll not hurt these humans or anyone else while I still stand!" The fox said, with its sharp, blood-soaked teeth fully revealed.

Tiche slowly got up and held the area where the fox bit her arm. Tiche had a pissed off expression while glaring at the fox, "This fucking fox is the bane of my existence."

 

[AlphaBlueWolf]

Mateo nervously played around with his book, waiting for the others' thoughts while his phoenix flapped in the air with its fiery wings. Skyla seemed surprised at his sudden look, basically him asking her to save him. He was sure he'd start floundering soon because he was no leader. The last plan he created with the dragon, climbing up its tail, that wasn't really a plan. At least this one had actual weight to it. But he still wasn't sure of himself.

She responded with that it was good, playing to everyone's strengths. Good, he was glad at least that got across. Really, he was trying to get them working as a real team, rather than shifting cogs on their own. Cogs could never work on their own, but together they could make a well-oiled machine. That's what they needed to be, not just a group of different cogs working alone, but a team.

Skyla turned towards Mika, and he gave his opinion, first complimenting his new bird. "Thanks." He simply said in a low tone with his cheeks blushing. It felt nice to be recognized for something cool he had. And the phoenix was incredibly cool. Mika went on, basically summarizing his ramblings down to what his plan really was. He nodded and smiled when Mika exclaimed that it could work. He was ecstatic that he could provide something to the group, and that they thought it was good.

Mika turned to Rai, wanting to start to act out Mateo's plan. But before he could do that, Rai gave his own take on the plan. Mateo's heart kind of sank. He knew he wasn't gonna be good at it, but Rai put it very bluntly. Mateo hadn't thought out everything. There wasn't enough time, and he didn't have the experience in making plans, though it was significantly better than his last one.

Rai talked about how if one member of the pair went down, then everything else went to shit. Yeah, a machine couldn't work without all its cogs. He hadn't really thought that out, especially since they really didn't have a good defensive strategy. Mateo had really just been relying on his group, knowing they were strong. He thought they could handle anything, which really showed just how much he looked up to them. Rai was definitely being the pessimist here.

Cora hissed at the comment he made about him. If only he knew the 'uncapable cat' was actually a Bakeneko spirit with the ability to shift into a saber tooth tiger. If only they all knew. Maybe then they'd stop looking down on Mateo, because he would be the huge tiger behind him, bearing his teeth and snarling until they complied with the teen's ideas. Mateo had kept both of them alive while running around different corners of the world, so obviously he knew something. He just didn't have the self confidence to recognize it, but Cora certainly did. He slunk up to Mateo, curling around the back of his legs and baring his teeth for Rai to see. A defensive manner, defending both himself and Mateo.

Rai's last sentence made Mateo feel like he understood the guy a little better. He just didn't want to lose anyone like they'd lost Skyla. But he needed to be more confident or else this would never work. They needed everyone at the top of their game. Skyla and Mika came back with their own reasonable arguments, Skyla talking about her sword and the fact that she wasn't letting Mika go down and Mika saying there were risks they all knew of. But none of this was what he wanted. He was trying to bring the group together so they could work better. This just seemed like the opposite.

"Guys, please." He shook his head. "This isn't helping anyone. We all need to act as a team, which means everyone gets a say in things. And it also means that we don't insult others intelligence or capabilities, like I told you before." He looked towards Rai and gestured to Cora, who was bristling with cold air resonating from him. Mateo would defend Cora, just like the Bakeneko did for him. "I get where everyone's coming from, but I think we should just focus on beating the horrible rhyming Knight. Seriously, if he says anymore rhymes, I think my ears will start to bleed." He chuckled at his joke, trying to lighten the mood. He always tried to be the mediator whenever there was an argument, because he didn't like his friends fighting. He understood where everyone was coming from. Rai was letting a soft side shine through, not wanting to lose anyone else, while Mika and Skyla were thinking from the optimistic and strategical standpoint. He didn't even know if they understood where Rai was coming from, probably only thinking of his harsh words.

"Also, you're forgetting I'm a healer. No one's gonna fall. I promise. You guys can trust me, since it's my job. And I believe you guys can pull this off. Because it's your job to be the fighters."



Tiche avoided her opening attack, which meant she was good. Kuragiri had taken basically all her hits, maybe because he knew he couldn't feel it, but she'd made the effort to dodge and had pulled it off. Even though Rori had impressive speed both on her and when she propelled herself with fire. She studied Tiche. While she was a human who had been given training to master her inhuman senses, Tiche was a Demi-human who probably just naturally had inhuman senses. This was a little different than the fight with Kuragiri.

Rori wanted to die every single time the woman called her 'kitty'. She knew it was supposed to be insulting but damn. She gave a glance towards Castro as Tiche pointed her blade at him. His bounty was getting in the way of her revenge. But also, she thought it was similar to her own situation. Not exactly, but to the same effect of people wanting you dead or locked up just because you were a nuisance. Its not like Castro had killed any innocent. Well, she didn't really know that. But he was better than Mr. Child Killer who was currently out cold. Guess they were gonna have to team up in another fight.

Rori had gotten into a stance, ready to summon fire to combat the attack, but Castro stepped in to save her ass. He summoned a wall of ice that took the wave attack, then took the other two, dodging one but getting kicked by the other. He then told her to remind him to never doubt her instincts, which were really just her trust issues. She opened her mouth to come back with something snarky, then closed it as he read her next move and told her not to. Damn, looks like he was smart enough to start catching on. She shrugged, deciding to reward him with no cocky comments. Instead, she opened her mouth to begrudgingly say, "Well, uh, thanks. For all that.." while making a gesture to the ice shield. It sounded awkward coming from her, because she really wasn't used to it.

"Hey, asshole!" Rori called over to Tiche. "The next time you call me kitty I'm gonna stab you with a flaming dagger. Besides, if anything, it'd be dragon thank you."

Akuhei quipped about how Castro got a new girlfriend and she quickly snapped at him. "Shut up, you broken English halfwit!" She hated whenever anyone said stuff like that. She was her own woman, not tied down to anyone or anything. And the idea that she'd ever be into someone like Castro was laughable. Even if he had just saved her life.

Rori turned to Castro as he spoke out his plan, talking about splitting up the enemies. They would draw one outside, and fight one in here. Rori was gonna opt to be the one going outside since a small area to fight in wasn't ideal. She could do it, of course, but all the racks and clothing would hinder her ability to go all out. If she tried to twist her body in that unnatural way she did, then she might get a foot stuck on a hanger while her body twisted to get out. Then she'd be open for an attack and she'd rather not have her brains bashed in by Broken English Boy or blown to bits by the Red-Eyed Traitor.

Also, the whole well-known and infamous thing felt like a dig, and Rori really wanted to get him back for that.

But before she could affirm that with Castro, Black Cloaked Creep bumped his head on the table as he awoke. Her expression immediately turned to disgust as his face came into view. Kuragiri panickily asking questions and hiding behind them like they were friends protecting him made her want to throw up. She gave a soft kick at him to push him away. Just like with the shoes, she imagined she was staring down at a rat with rabies. She flinched when Castro told Kuragiri that he'd need to help. She looked at him with an angry expression, her fingers twitching around her dagger. Now she regretted thanking him for before, because he was absolutely insane.

Castro gave it to Kuragiri, loudly talking about when they were Onyx Bandits. Rori thought Castro needed to get his loyalties in check. His emotions were still with the Onyx Bandits and that made him weak. Emotions had no place in battle. It only complicated things. And right now his emotions were clouding his judgement about Kuragiri. He was a cold blooded killer, no longer the friend Castro sought to protect.

Kuragiri agreed, wedging a spot between her and Castro to help. She sighed and inched away from him, sending a glare to both boys in the process. Kuragiri turned towards her, with his hand engulfed in flame and told her they would be working together. Rori looked at Castro, "Yeah, no way. You're insane if you honestly think I'm working with the child killer here. He's your mess, Blue Eyes. Deal with it!" She snapped. She was definitely not happy at the insensitively here.

After she was done addressing Castro, she turned her searing gaze on Kuragiri and raised her golden dagger to be level with his throat. "Let's get one thing straight, Black Cloaked Creep. I hate your guts, but I have other things to deal with right now. Namely not getting killed by the guys who're here for you two and not me. Thanks for that, by the way. I'll let you deal with this for now, but if you so much as run or even double cross us, I'll do a lot more than just knock you out this time." To make her point, she set fire to her dagger and let it get dangerously close to his throat before retracting it back to her side. Then she went to her form of a plan.

"One of you takes Broken English Boy. You know him, you know his moves. It'll be better for someone who knows him to handle him. I'm clueless either way so I can take the bitch. I'll be going outside, since I don't need another one attracted to you and your damn bounty. You're right, I'm not as infamous as your famous ass, but I've been giving the guards a run for their money since I was ten. It'll be dangerous for any of us to go outside fighting in a wealthy district, but I'm better in an area I can actually move in. And, again, you've got more experience in this damn shop, Blue Eyes. You'll know where stuff is. And I'm seriously not staying in close quarters with this freak." She pointed to Kuragiri. "Alright! Let's go kick some ass! I need to blow off some steam anyways." She cracked her knuckles and began stalking forward towards Tiche.

Before she could do anything, some random ass fox stood in between her group and the enemies. Yellow fur, nine weaving tails, and as it looked back it revealed two dark red eyes. She put her glowing golden dagger up, clearly on the defensive. She realized what this thing was. Not just a normal fox, but a spirit. "One thing after a fucking 'nother, I swear." She sighed and looked to Castro. "Spirit. Trust my instincts here. Thing can't be killed so be careful." She gave that warning just as the fox lashed out at Tiche, protecting Castro. Was it with them or against? The traitor had said she was with them, then betrayed them like Rori had known. She wasn't trusting this new player, not after what Tiche pulled.

The fox said it'd protect the humans Tiche was trying to hurt. But it was ruining their plans. If she could get Tiche's attention, then maybe she'd follow outside, and they could fix what the fox had ruined. So, Rori charged once more, putting her speed to good use and side stepping around the fox. She slashed at Tiche's side, enhancing it with residual fire that would burn at her side until she put it out. Hopefully she'd been distracted enough that her move worked and hopefully she'd follow after Rori as she side stepped towards the door. "Yo, Blondie Tails, get out of my damn way!"

 

[Kumii]

Tiche of the Black Knife and Inari NatuskiLocation: Unknown area of Ironshire
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf
Mentions: SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
Tiche was too pissed off to respond to Rori, instead saying this, "Every time you fucking talk, my ears bleed. Your insults are grade-school at best, scarface." Tiche got up and clenched her hurt arm a few times to shake off the pain, "And kitty suits you just fine because trust me, you are no dragon, honey." The tone of her voice was no longer sadism. It was pure anger.

Tiche parried the attack Rori threw at her with her dagger easily, "Sorry, Blue Eyes, your death will have to wait. I gotta kill this fucking fox first."

Tiche and the fox squared off, the fox was snarling. Tiche then disappeared in her signature dark mist. Vanishing from sight. The foxes ears stood straight and began pointing in different directions before locking on onto a specific point... to the left of Rori. The fox whipped its head around and snapped down on Tiche's arm again, stopped her attack mid swing.

The fox began overpowering Tiche. In defense, Tiche punched the fox the nose before squirreling away, grabbing her Knife as she did so. The fox recoiled back and shook its head as it glanced back at Rori, "I know you mortals hate our guts, but now's the time to put aside your petty hatred of Spirits. I could very well leave you and this assassin to it and you won't come out on top." The fox stared at Rori for a moment, "Your ego will be your downfall, mortal." The fox looked at Tiche, "So what will it be? Shall I leave you alone to deal with the assassin by yourself, or will you swallow your pride and work with a Spirit?"

 

[SharkBark]

Mood: Alert and Ready to Battle

Rai Ikari

Thunderous Hunter

Bridge to Iron Fortress

Rai sat down to recover for a bit after finished offering his opinion on the plan. That didn't seem to sit too well with the others though. Skyla asked Rai to have at least a bit of confidence in their plan. She mention how she also has a sword and that he was acting like she'd actually let Mika go down.

"I do have some trust in this, and I didn't forget about the sword." Rai said. "It's just-"

Before Rai could explain himself, Mika chimed into the conversation and offered his own opinion. He told Rai that he was talking like he wasn't at his own risks of going down in battle too. Then he told him that if he didn't like the plan, he should sit back and let them deal with it. Rai let out a slow sigh to keep himself from speaking. No point in delving into an argument. When Mika continued, he talked about the fact that every battle they're in they have a high risk of getting killed.

"Sorry for saying that, but I'm stating reality. You can have all this sentimental stuff but sentimentality won't save you if things go awry. That's entirely up to you. No plan ever goes how you intend, you of all people should know that by now.

Then he asked Rai once more again,

"So I'll ask you again, Rai, do you want to see what we can do together, Thunderous Hunter?"

"Listen, I never said that I wasn't in danger too. And I get that we always have a risk, it's just that-" Rai looked to the ground and paused for a moment, biting on his tongue to stop himself from speaking. After a bit, he stood up unsheathed his katana again. "Never mind, forget I said anything in the first place. Sure, let's see what we do."

Rai glanced at their foe ahead. He was a bit less dangerous now without his noble steed, but he was still entirely capable of defeating them if they didn't play their cards right, or if they made the mistake of messing up their plan. I'm definitely going to get injured here. Rai thought. But if that's how it'll have to be, I'll put my body on the line to at least protect the others. Rai slid his free hand under his haori and touched a bruise the side of his rib. After the fight, he'd definitely have to get Mateo to check on that.

"Guys, please." Mateo suddenly chimed in. Rai forgot he was there for a second, and he had just insulted his plan.

"Mateo, I didn't mean to..." Rai tried to apologize.

Mateo told the group that arguing with each other wasn't going to help at all, and for the most part, he was right. Rai didn't mean to start it, he was just giving his opinion. Mateo continued on about acting as a team and not insulting other's capabilities, which he gestured to Cora to, who seemed to be ready to tear Rai apart.

"S-Sorry, Cora..."

Mateo kept up with positives words and reassurance, even throwing in a joke, which lightened Rai up a bit. He was definitely feeling a bit more understood. Mateo was definitely beginning to grow on him a lot more, he wasn't just your average, wimpy teenager in some ways. He was protective, willing to fight for his friends, kind, and in general, a good person. Ragging on his plans and cat aren't going to help him stay that way.

"Sorry, Mateo. And Cora." Rai finally finished his apologies. "I, uhm, I didn't mean to sound harsh or sound like a dick. Just kinda tired of getting my ass beat and people getting taken. It's literally all that's happened today. No sleep, just constant trouble. So, sorry for that." Rai turned back to the others. "So, we gonna start this plan or...? Again, keep what I said in mind and back up anyone who looks like they're in trouble."


Kumii AlphaBlueWolf

Code by Serobliss

Mood: Fearful

Castro Smith

Blue-Eyed Bandit

Unknown, Ironshire

"He's your mess, Blue Eyes. Deal with it!" Rori snapped at Castro.

"Yes, ma'am." Castro said with a small salute, which made Kuragiri chuckle a bit.

Rori then directed her snappiness to Kuragiri and threatening him with something worse than an ass beating while putting her searing hot blade dangerously close to his neck. Kuragiri's eyes widened at this response. He may have hated her, but she intrigued him with her constant bitchiness and sheer denseness. If she kept that up, then one day someone would humble her and beat her ass for her responses to everything. He was a bit surprised that Castro hadn't devised a plan to kill her. He was probably seeing her as a friend already, when in reality, she could betray him. Kinda like how Kuragiri did. Kuragiri's only response to Rori's threat was only lifting his hands, smirking, and then he said,

"Whoa, calm down, princess. I have no intent of beating your ass right now."

Rori next began to tell them what plan she had, which involved Kuragiri and Castro taking Akuhei while she would attempt to take on Tiche. She said they'd take on Akuhei because they had experience and even though she had no idea who she was, she'd take on Tiche. Kuragiri had no initial problem with the plan, and he didn't care if Castro and Rori got hurt, as long as he didn't get his ass handed to, he'd be fine. He

"Alright, be careful, Rori." Castro said as she began to walk towards Tiche. "Okay, it's you and me Kuragiri. Try any sneaky shit, and I'll bash your head in. I should've killed you back there anyways."

"You know you love me, Castro." Kuragiri teased.

"Shut up or I'll freeze you."

Suddenly, seeming to come out of nowhere, a girl with foxlike qualities and nine tails walked into the shop and said a few things before launching at the red eyed woman for an attack. Tiche and the fox girl fought for a bit and Inari was actually able to get her down for a moment. But when she got up, she didn't try to keep fighting, she charged towards Castro but was quicky shut down by Inari.

"Who the hell is that?" Kuragiri asked, his arm engulfed in even hotter flames.

"I have no clue; she seems to have some beef with red eyes over there though." Castro responded.

The kitsune girl gave Castro a few glances and then started saying some superhero type shit about not letting Tiche hurt the humans. Rori made a regard that she was a spirit, which Castro didn't answer too and held back a side eye. As if that wasn't already obvious, she clearly has qualities that are rare in a human. Nevertheless, she seemed to have a strong urge to protect humans, and if she could distract Tiche, they'd be able to start their plan right away. So, Castro quickly manifested a dagger from ice and with clean precision threw it across the store at Akuhei's forehead.

"Let's move out, Kuragiri." Castro said as he charged forward at Akuhei. At the same time, Kuragiri produced flames from his feet and burned holes through his shoes, while at the same time propelling himself forward at Akuhei too.

Kuragiri made it to Akuhei before Castro and immediately began an attack combo. He sent a fiery flurry of taekwondo styled kicks at Kuragiri. A combo of a spinning heel kick transitioning into a double roundhouse. Akuhei quickly and with ease dodged these basic kicks and once Kuragiri finished, he copied his style and hit him with a high axe kick and nailed him right on the top of his head.

"You can't fight me with a style I was taught before you." Akuhei commented. Then he put a sickle in each hand and water emanated from the blue one while fire came from the red one. "Time to come back with me. Come back to your family."

"I'd rather die."

"Believe me, I'd rather you die too."

Catching Akuhei off guard, Castro quickly brushed past him in the middle of his little conversation, using Kuragiri's attacks as a distraction to pick up his blade. Once he had it, he wasted no time to make a move. With a low, swooping maneuver, he swung his blade at Akuhei's torso in an attempt to slice him clean in half, but the Shugosha responded with impeccable speed, appearing behind Castro and kicking him in his back, launching him forward.

"Alright, I see that you're still as fast as ever. It's not gonna stop us from killing you though. Go, Kuragiri!"

Kuragiri was suddenly behind Akuhei. How? I don't know. But with the heat of an everlasting bonfire, Kuragiri's fist was covered in flames and he punched Akuhei straight across the face, leaving a mark on his face and sending him crashing so hard through the wall that a dent was made.

Mood: Annoyed

Akuhei

Shugosha

Unknown, Ironshire

Check Castro's part of the post.

Love,

Shark

Kumii AlphaBlueWolf

Code by Serobliss

 

[Kumii]

???Location: Top of the Tower in Ironshire
Mentions: AlphaBlueWolf
Current Weather: Clear

Spoiler: Mood Music

A mystery figure looked on from the tip top of the tower in Ironshire. The figure could clearly see every single Spirit Thread connected to every single Spirit within the city and even some outside of it. They would notice one strange looking one, "Oh ho?" The figure placed their finger gently on the thread and ran it up it.

The figure took their finger off it and licked their finger, revealing sharp teeth within their mouth, "Ah... Kitsune but a very special Kitsune. This one seems to be in conflict with itself." They followed the thread to its source and saw three figures duking it out, one of them they recognized, "Ah, Tiche... my dear sister. Gotten yourself into trouble again?" They said, when they talked, their voice was calm yet lacked emotion, "Then that must mean the Kitsune source of this thread is.. Inari." They gave the same sadistic smile that Tiche would give, but this one was full of sharp teeth and emotionless expressions.

"I suppose it's time rescue my dear sister once more. You know you can't win against this particular Kitsune, Tiche. So why even try?" The figure got up, "Besides, the Death Knight says your usefulness to him is running out. Tick tock, Tiche. Tick...tock." Their smile faded, "Though it's not like I care what that spineless, self-proclaimed 'God' has to think. He took you hostage. He'll pay for that. I swear it. No-one harms..." they opened a dark mist portal and began to step through it, "...my precious sister."

 

[AlphaBlueWolf]

Rai had started going back at it with Mika and Skyla which wasn't what Mateo wanted. They still had a bit of a ways to go before they were really a fighting team, rather than a group of friends. Skyla and Mika seemed to like to humor him a lot with his ideas, but they had seemed to generally think the plan would work. Rai was more doubtful. Had the guy worked on a team before? He was with Nia when they first met him, but he was a bounty hunter. That must've been a lonely job, considering bounty hunters usually didn't work in teams. They were all about the money, and sharing a bounty seemed like it wouldn't end well for them. Mateo talked about how he was tough roughneck because he was a Desert Strider, but bounty hunters seemed to be the real roughnecks. He'd seen bounty bars on his travels, and he really didn't like to go into those places. Rai wasn't typically a rude, aggressive guy, but from what he knew about bounty hunters and samurai, it seemed like teamwork wasn't a usual thing for him. Mateo could understand if that was in fact the case. He'd traveled around by himself before he'd met Cora. There was always a lonely feeling that nagged at him since he'd taken to isolating himself. Mateo wanted a place to belong, but this group made him feel like he'd found that. He wanted to help Rai find that too.

Rai apologized to both him and Cora, acknowledging how he'd sounded super harsh. And Mateo had been right with his first theory, that Rai was afraid and tired of their friends getting taken away. Skyla's kidnapping had affected him too. Mateo could understand it. Rai had been in the room when Skyla had been captured, albeit totally knocked out, but he probably felt responsible. Mateo knew how that felt. And it sucked. But Rai wasn't responsible, none of them were. But Rai was feeling low because of the defeats they'd suffered and that was something Mateo couldn't let continue. Guess maybe Skyla wasn't the only one he had to look out for. He finally realized that what happened was traumatizing for everyone in the group. He was gonna have to drop his healer's hat and put on his therapist's hat. Rai, Skyla, and Mika definitely needed to have their feelings heard. He looked over to Nia. Maybe her too. However, Mateo wasn't a therapist, so really all he could do was be a friend and listen. Maybe that's all they needed too.

Mateo nodded and smiled at Rai. "It's alright. I get it. I think we all do, honestly. And I'll keep what you said in mind. But let's make sure we don't get our... uh... asses.. beat again." He gave a crooked smile, knowing full well that he didn't feel comfortable with cursing. He was just trying to mimic Rai's words to get his point across. "Or anyone taken. It won't happen again, so long as we all do our part. And, Rai, we will win with everyone still with us. I've gotta believe that." He fixed his crooked smile to one of sincere recognition. He understood what Rai was really thinking. Maybe he would be a good therapist after all.

Cora, on the other hand, didn't care for the apology. People had been underestimating him all his life. Especially as a cat. People believed he was nothing but a ball of fur and that wasn't even remotely true. He was a master with his ice magic, able to freeze over anything. He'd encased his wound in frost, and could do that to all his enemies, freezing them fixed in one spot. Frozen in time until he was merciful enough to let them out of their frost prison. And Mateo was the merciful one out of them, not Cora. He let out a snarl with bared teeth, cold breath escaping from his maw as he revealed his rows of sharp teeth. A single, cold warning to Rai. But Mateo wasn't so happy about that.

"Cora, he apologized so you gotta be nice now too." Mateo chided. He nudged the cat who gave a muttered chittering sound in response. He padded along, curling around Mateo's legs once again with slitted ice blue eyes. Mateo just sighed and shook his head. Cora wasn't going to like the newcomers and that was that. He just wished the Bakeneko would eventually warm up, but that seemed impossible for the cold cat himself.

"Alright, I can give you your first opening with my sweet new bird pal." Mateo said with shinning eyes. He wanted to look cool for everyone. What attacks could this thing pull off. So far, explosions and fire wind. Was that all? It had to have something else. He started thinking about dragons. They sent their magic out of their mouths through breath. Stereotypical dragons could breathe fire. It would be so cool if his phoenix could breathe fire.

"Please." He murmured before commanding, "Bird pal, fire breath!" He commanded and it was a go. The bird got into action, spread its wings and rang out a caw. Then it opened its beak once more and sent a beam of fire breath straight at the enemy. "Yes! Rai, Mika, now's your chance! Everyone get into your teams! Cora, stop hiding behind me and go with Nia." He was so confident in this, despite his bird breathing fire being a total fluke. Cora scrambled over to Nia, Mateo going to Skyla's side and letting his plan commence. Hopefully his optimism would prove them right in this battle.




Tiche's comment was annoying as hell. She could take the whole grade-school comment about her insults. She knew they were great. It annoyed Castro, and her quips were getting on Tiche's nerves. They were obviously a success. The scarface comment was getting there, considering she'd gotten that from her time as an orphan. Specifically, when it first happened, but it's not like Rori cared about her looks. It was just that it got too close to home for her taste. The dragon comment, now that's what ended up setting her off. Her time with her mentor begged to differ, as well as her bandit nickname. They didn't call her the Dragonflame Bandit for nothing. The boys had set her off, and it wasn't good for her to be going at it with someone so irritating. Someone who sounded exactly like her.

"You can't kill a spirit you moron." She yelled as Tiche and the fox squared off. Shouldn't she know that, if she was part spirit herself.

The fox saved her a couple times, but Rori would've been fine on her own. She reacted quickly, showing promise in her speed. She flinched and went one direction. Then went the other way as the two quarreled. The fox was impressive with her speed too and stopped Tiche in her tracks. That didn't make her a friend though, she could easily betray them, just like Tiche did. Just like everyone would eventually.

She still couldn't get over those two. She was slightly distracted by them while moving with the battle. Rori was expecting that kind of snarky back talk from the literal child killer, but Castro sounded like he was mocking her with that stupid salute. It's like he didn't understand it at all. She'd wanted revenge for the girl she couldn't save, Castro even promising that to her if she just went along with his stupid plans, and now he wanted her to be all buddy buddy with the guy. As if that was actually happening. And she was the crazy one. They were so infuriating, and now she had to deal with someone who could back talk as much as she did. Yay!

The fox got hit in the face, allowing Tiche to weasel her way towards her oddly shaped knife. Meanwhile, the fox addressed her, talking about putting aside her petty feelings of spirits and allowing it to help her. Seriously? She knew she was all proud about her abilities but come on. "Oh, come off it, Blondie Tails." She groaned. "Get off your high horse. I don't give a shit whether you're a spirit or a mortal. All of them are shifty assholes, no matter what package they come in. Can't trust em either way. I don't even like my own troop of clowns over there, even though they're both mortals. Just met you like five seconds ago, and just met them like I don't know an hour or two ago. So, tell me why I should trust a stranger? Doing that has gotten me into this whole mess. Besides the assassin, thank you for that piece of information by the way, told us that she was on our side. Then she buddied up with the big idiot and started trying to kill me. Not like I was foolish enough to trust her, but I think I outta not trust rando people who talk about teaming up to stop the baddies. Because that led to me having to deal with two assholes instead of one big moron. We were doing fine, even had a plan that you so graciously ruined for us by showing up. So do what you want, Blondie Tails, see if I give a shit. The only way I'll start caring is if I have to fight a third one."

Rori then directed herself to Tiche. "Clearly you have no experience with dragons. If you did, you'd known. Or maybe your just an idiot for pinning me as 'kitty'. I'll show you the might of a dragon." Sure, maybe it wasn't the best idea to start going all out with her fire attacks in a flammable store, but when Rori was angry there was no getting through to her. A fatal flaw, as the fox described it.

Rori studied Tiche. Now that she knew she was an assassin, she could plan accordingly. Assassins, at least the stereotypes, were supposed to be fast and silent. They were basically shinobi but less out in the open. They killed their targets silently, but Tiche had a flare for the dramatic. She'd come out into the open rather than silently picking them off, which had been her downfall. Because now they all had a fighting chance. But she had the speed part down pat. She'd missed all of Rori's attacks, even though she was speedy for a mortal. If she could beat that speed, then maybe she could get an attack in, rather than someone who had entered the situation five seconds ago getting attack after attack.

So, she channeled her rage into pure fire energy. One of the lessons her mentor had taught her. Rori's dagger seemed to get whiter with light, and hotter too. It would burn the hand off of anyone who wasn't Rori. Flame shot up the dagger, shooting straight up her arm until it reached her back. The flame outlined the shape of wings, shifting colors of glittering orange and red. The same happened to her hands, fire outlining her fingers in flitting claws. A wreath of fire created horns at her head, flaming spines outlined down her back, and a tail of fiery spines whipping with agitation. "This dragon enough for you?" She asked Tiche with a smirk.

It was like Rori was an athlete doped up on drugs. It might help her on the playing field, but her little power play would run out eventually. And end up leaving her vulnerable. But right now, she had the power of a fire breathing elder dragon. Her mentor would be proud of her using this skill. She was faster, stronger, and her flames hotter. She had more tricks up her sleeve than just a cool sword, that was also a dagger, that was also a small golden coin.

Rori propelled herself forward, much faster than she had been before. She was a blur of flame and closed the distance between her and Tiche in no time. It seemed like she teleported behind Tiche, twisting her body and using every muscle to release a horizontal slash across her body. An attack enhanced by her white-hot flame.

In that split second, Rori used her brain for something other than annoying bitchy remarks. She thought about how the fox had interacted with Tiche. How she had interacted with Tiche. All they were doing was reacting so far. Rori had beaten Tiche's speed by going all out, but that really wouldn't be enough. All they could do was match her speed, but not stop her. The fox reacted quick, but the only attack it had really gotten in was the arm. The only other attacks were completely defensive. If they could eliminate the speed issue, then they could actually have their attacks land. No, she could have her attacks land. She was on her own here. She'd been on her own since she was a child. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She'd left the only person who'd cared about her since her family, all in the name of revenge. Was she missing that? No, attack. Can't think about all this sappy stuff. It only served to cloud her judgement. First rule of the street, think about yourself and what you needed for survival. Others would just pull you down. The fox didn't matter to her, not unless it became an enemy. They weren't a team. It was her, and some random stranger.

Rori decided to put some faith in Castro. Those cuffs had been awesome, and she hoped the glove she'd stolen off his weapon wrack was worth something. She pulled up her gloved hand, with the flaming claws spewing around her fingers, and pushed down on the assassin's neck. Similar to her attack on Kuragiri, she was hoping it'd do something to at least disorient Tiche so she had a fair shot. She felt electricity rip through the glove in pulses. It went off the glove and delivered a hard shock to Tiche's neck. As Rori ripped her hand away, she could see the electricity shooting off from her fingertips.

"Damn. Guess Blue Eyes is worth his salt." She said, admiring the glove then shaking her head. She was supposed to be mad at the jerk right now.

 

[Kumii]

Battle on the Iron Bridge - The Final Battle
Weather: Clear
Phase: Enraged (All damage dealt by the Knight is now doubled.)

Spoiler: Mood Music

The Knight saw Mika's attack coming and sidestepped to the right and began an upward swing toward him, but luckily, Skyla's arrow reached him just in time and it pulled the Knight back away from Mika and locked him there for a minute, "Damnit! What is this?!" He yelled out..

Rai now had a free attack.
AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark

The Headless Horseman (26,780/32,250 (83.0%) Vitality)

Skyla the Dark Flash and Mika the Flaming SpearLocation: Iron Bridge
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
Skyla looked downa nd away as Mateo said they all knew what Rai meant. Truthfully, she didn't mean to come off as scolding, "Sorry, Rai. Didn't mean to sound like that. Like Mateo said, it wont happen again." Mika did the same thing but didn't say anything, "Mika understands too, Rai." Mika shot a glance at Skyla which Skyla just stuck out her tongue for.

As soon as Mateo's bird sprung into action and gave them their opening, Mika charged in, hoping Rai would follow him, "Let's do this Rai!" He aid as his lance began to glow with fire.

Mika jumped into the air, "You take bottom, Rai!" Mika yelled out as he stabbed his lance downward toward the knight.

Skyla jumped back a bit when things kicked off and got down on one knee and began charging her bow, "Hey, Mateo, let's see what happens when I pour dark magic into the bow, eh?" She gave him a sisterly smile then began concentrate dark magic into the bow. The bowstring began to glow a dark purple. She released the arrow after Mika made his attack, well in advance before Rai would make his so that it gave Rai a free attack.

Tiche of the Black Knife, Inari Natuski and Loathesome KumiiLocation: Unknown area of Ironshire
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf
Mentions: SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear

Spoiler: You know what this is

Inari gave a knowing glance at Rori and simply said, "So be it. I know when I am not wanted." She would turn around and begin walking out the door, "I wish you luck, mortal." Inari would then leave.

Tiche watched as Inari left and just gave a smirk, "When you've been alive for thousands of years, you see all kinds of animals. Trust me, honey. You are NOT a dragon. By any means." Tiche saw Rori basically power-up and quip with if it was dragon enough for her, "Getting there, love." Tiche didn't have much time to react, in fact she was just slow as Rori's attack just clipped her, 'Damn... can't show that I got hit...' Tiche quickly recovered and managed to dodge Rori's follow-up punch with the electrified glove, "The f-"

Before Tiche could finish her sentence, a dark mist portal opened up and out came a demonic humanoid with long, white hair. He came out so fast, that he would grab Rori by the neck in a tight squeeze and lift her up off her feet. The demon would simply stare at Rori with dead, emotionless eyes, "You are not the fox." He said in a light voice, yet it sounded terrifying all the same.

Tiche stumbled back as the figure appeared before them before realizing who it was, "Brother?!" Kumii gave Tiche a glance and sniffed the air, returning his attention to Rori. Kumii then threw Rori to the ground, "Don't even think about doing anything funny while my back is turned to you, mortal." Kumii approached Tiche and opened up a portal and they both entered. However, just before leaving, he caught as interesting scent... he'd have to come back and investigate that. For now, both Kumii and Tiche had left the sight of Rori.

 

[SharkBark]

Mood: Alert and Ready to Battle

Rai Ikari

Thunderous Hunter

Bridge to Iron Fortress

A muffled snicker was let out from Rai when Mateo made a comment about them not getting their asses kicked again. It made him feel a little better about the situation at hand. Guess he just needed to laugh a bit, he had been a little too serious the entire day. From fighting beasts all sizes to finally finding Skyla, there had been a lot dropped on Rai today, and the anxiety he got from it was spewing onto his comrades. Mika and Skyla had a good reason to sort of scold him, he was being rude about the plan. But Mateo was a lot more understanding with Rai's comments. He seemed to take a bit offense to it, but he remained calm and tried to communicate with Rai, which worked in the long run. Sure, he was a lightning quick and powerful bounty hunter, but there's also something soft under a tough shell.



Being a bounty hunter, you were basically surrounded by negativity itself. And not just from criminals, fellow hunters too. When Rai entered his first ever Bounty Bar, he was absolutely assaulted by everyone there. They said he was "too young" for bounty hunting and that he should stop before he ends up getting killed. They'd even make comments about his skin tone. Too many times was he called "The Charcoal Hunter" or "blackie" by those so called "heroes".



The physical assault was even worse. They'd "train" Rai every now and then by forcing him to fight against them. Since he was just an awkward teen during those days, he was easily overpowered and lost against many hunters. It wasn't till Rai turned 20 that he got a little respect. He had become a high ranking hunter and became stronger than most of the people there. He got no more brutal beatdowns from them and he even got his revenge on the racist bastards.(think back to Igor, the guy who got his ass beat from Rai at the bar when Rai and Nia first met)



Now he was here, fighting alongside someone with a bounty on her head, two lovebirds, and a caring teen with his scary cat. He loved being around them, but was Rai missing his old Bounty Bar days? Before, he was highly respected and would defeat enemies left and right without a scratch. Now, he was getting scolded and having near death experiences in every battle. As much as he cared about his friends, he needed to think about himself and what he wanted too. What would Dad do? Rai asked himself.



His father was a famous warrior who defeated the strongest of enemies and had an amazing wife, but he left all that for something. Rai's mother always told him that he was in a war, but Rai always had his suspicions. When his father was around, Rai would constantly catch him with syringes filled with mysterious fluids and books that Rai couldn't read because they were in runes. And he always seemed to wear unknown metals as jewelry. So Rai suspected that he was performing alhemy. But why? Was it for riches? Power? Fame? So many questions, yet Rai never got an answer.



At the sound of Mika calling out for them to go and hearing Mateo's plan with his bird, Rai began to charge forward with his katanas, ready to pounce into action. Mateo wasted no time to attack and sent his Phoenix out towards the Knight. Seeming like a dragon, the bird opened its beak and spewed searing flames towards the Knight.



Mika followed up with an attempted stab with his lance that looked like it was going to land, but the Knight was quick. Their foe quickly stepped out of the way and countered with an upwards slice. For a moment it looked like Mika was going to be sliced in half and what Rai feared most about this plan was going to occur. But as she said, Skyla wasn't going to let him die. She shot a perfectly placed arrow that forced the Knight's attack to stop while at the same time making him stepback, creating the perfect opening.



Rai saw it immediately. He immediately drastically increased his speed and closed the distance between him and his target. Feeling the bolts flow through his body and towards his two blades, he swung them in perfect synchronization towards the lower half of the Knight, with pure intention to slice him in half.



It was a strong effort, maybe not the last one, but a good one. And if it didn't works, Rai would keep trying until he killed this thing. Even if it killed him in the process. And he was most certain that his allies would do the same thing.





Kumii AlphaBlueWolf

Code by Serobliss

Mood: Fearful

Castro Smith

Blue-Eyed Bandit

Unknown, Ironshire

After successfully knocking Akuhei into a wall, Kuragiri could feel the adrenaline flowing through his veins, and it made him eager. He decided not to miss out on than opportunity and charged Akuhei once again. With his fist still engulfed in flames, he bag to hit Akuhei with a barrage of devastating blows that released an audible thud with each hit.

Kuragiri laughed crazily as he kept on with the attacks, putting the intent to kill behind each one. To his surprise, it actually looked like it was working on him. Akuhei let out painful groans and bruises started forming on his face. But as he watched in desperation, he saw a small smile crack onto Akuhei's face.

"Kuragiri, back down!" Castro called out. "It's a trap!"

Kuragiri slowly looked back at Castro, and his sinister smile began to fade. As he looked back at the Shugosha, fear crept into his body and completely overwhelmed him. Akuhei was now standing straight above his and looked down at him with anger. As if he was some sort of gatling machine, Akuhei began to return the blows that Kuraguri had hit him with, but with even stronger force. Kuragri began to yell in pain and basically crumbled to the ground as the punched overwhelmed him and took him out immediately. Once Kuragiri was covered in blood and was unconscious, Akuhei diverted his attention to Castro. A sense of bloodlust filled the room. He was going for Castro now.

And he had to fight him off by himself.

((Sorry if this part doesn't make sense, i had more but it somehow got deleted. At that point I was too tired to continue and make more.

Mood: Annoyed

Akuhei

Shugosha

Unknown, Ironshire

Check Castro's part of the post.

Love,

Shark

Kumii AlphaBlueWolf

Code by Serobliss

 

[AlphaBlueWolf]

Mateo smiled as he heard the muffled snicker. He didn't take offense. In fact, that was all he wanted right now. He wanted to see Rai smile or at least cheer him up. He wanted to cheer everyone up. They'd gotten Skyla back, and they were going to get out of this. Then, who knows what. The important thing would be that they were all alive and together. They could do whatever they wanted afterwards. After they defeated the knight. Together.

Skyla was apologizing too and everything seemed well. Mateo's bird shot out fire from its beak and the plan was a go. Mika started up the attack, dashing in and jabbing his lance at the knight with fire embedded into it. Though, the attack failed. The knight stepped to the right just in time and performed an upward slice towards Mika.

Skyla charged up her bow saying, "Hey, Mateo, let's see what happens when I pour dark magic into the bow, eh?"

Mateo chuckled. "I bet it'll be as awesome as with your earth magic."

And he was right. It stopped the knight's attack from hitting Mika and pulled the knight backwards, giving Rai a perfect opportunity to get in. "I never knew you could use dark magic. I only ever saw you using earth magic at the festival." He commented.

Rai came sweeping in for a low attack, very much trying to slice the knight in half. Mateo's attention shifted to the two in waiting, regulating his plan before getting to see how it all turned out with Rai's attack. He was sure the guy was successful though, because he had complete faith in Rai's abilities.

"Cora, Nia! Now's your chance, get in there!" Mateo called.

Cora rolled his eyes and sighed. Mateo would be mad if he didn't help, and he never liked to make his companion upset. He meowed as a signal to Nia and flicked his tail, then swiftly ran to the knight with Nia hopefully following. He clawed his way up the knight, delivering a frosty bite to his sword arm. He jumped down and created a slick patch of ice under him, coating his body to keep him fixed to the spot so Nia could get in some damage. Only for Mateo, he reminded himself.



The fox had left but it's not like Rori cared. One less random person meant fewer potential enemies. Besides, she was competent on her own. She'd survived the cruel streets of Ironshire during her childhood. Alone mind you. If she could do that, then she could beat up some random girl with striking red eyes and nose as a sharp as a full spirit's.

Tiche was annoying as hell with the dragon comments and that's what she chose to focus on, taking her down. The fox hardly mattered considering now with her powered up form, she'd start making quick work of Tiche. The real problem was her speed, and she was about to take that out of the equation.

Rori could tell Tiche was in shock from her speed. Maybe she wasn't expecting something like that from a mortal, but Rori was no ordinary mortal. Her training said otherwise. She watched the fire swipe from her dagger collide into Tiche. She'd gotten in a successful hit, staggering Tiche. Her follow-up attack seemed like a good idea, except Tiche still had her speed. She dodged the attack, electric spewing out of the glove with no target to connect with. Still, it was cool to know what it did.

Rori had about the same reaction as Tiche when some random dude stepped out of a portal. Gods too many randos were showing up, complicating the matter. It was supposed to be them dealing with the utter horrible situation Castro had gotten her into. Now she had to fight someone else. He had long, white hair, and the reaction speed of a certain annoying someone. "Shi-" She couldn't finish before the demonic figure snatched her up by her neck.

She couldn't breathe. Rori struggled, kicking the figure's stomach in an attempt to let him go. You couldn't say Rori didn't have a fighting spirit, because that's all she had right now. But she was no match for a full demon, even in her powered state. The demon stated that she wasn't the fox. "Y-yeah. No--sh-shit." She said in a smart-ass way, but it cost her precious breath she needed at the moment. The fox was right. Her ego and bitchy personality were getting her killed. She felt like a kid again, struggling against the grasp of the guards. She'd barrage them with curses and punched one in the face. They gripped her hard, telling her to shut the hell up or they'd put her down. Those people really did think of her like a dog. A stray off the streets that they could kill when she started causing trouble. That's what she hated to this day about Ironshire. This felt the same way, only the guy was searching for someone else. A stronger, militant force opposing her, looking down on her as weak and troublesome. Even if he was scary as hell, Rori's eyes shone bright with hatred and determination. She hadn't survived this long for someone to put her down now.

The demon threw Rori to the ground and she gasped for breath. She was powered up, with a dagger built to conduct flame, and she hadn't done anything. She was trapped in her past, unable to escape from her childhood. She was an adult now, but the past as a kid still controlled her life. She couldn't trust the people around her, refused help, and couldn't get her emotions in check. All she needed was revenge, and then maybe she would get better. Or maybe revenge wasn't what she needed at all.

The demon told her not to do anything funny while his back was turned. "Oh, yeah." She spoke in between gasps. "Wouldn't dream of it after you almost just suffocated me." They opened up a portal and left Rori's sight, with her letting them leave. She couldn't do anything with her lungs struggling for air. "Yeah, run away, Red-Eyed Traitor." She said as she pulled herself off the ground. One enemy may have left her sights, but there was another one here. She fixed her gaze on Akuhei, who was currently beating up the boys. She wondered if she should just let it happen or step in. They were being awful before. They deserved it.

But she'd gotten her satisfaction from Kuragiri crumbling to the ground and not getting back up. Maybe she shouldn't be rooting for her own teammate to get his ass handed to him, but Kuragiri did deserve it. He was a cold-blooded killer after all. And he was useless to her. So now that she didn't have to deal with him, she figured she'd step in and help Castro.

Her wings of flitting fire curled and expanded. There was still a battle she needed to win. She rushed at Akuhei, claws at the ready. She stabbed her dagger into Akuhei's back, confident his small brain would be too distracted with Castro and not able to keep up with her speed. She left it sunk in his skin, then raked both claws of flame up his back. She took out her dagger and used her flame wings to propel herself backwards.

"Need a rescue Blue Eyes?" She quipped while breathing heavy. Her fast movements were not helping her lungs regenerate the air that was lost from the demon dude's tight squeeze.



Aiko's life hadn't been going as smoothly since the festival. Guards were posted around the entries and people were taking a swing at the bounty posted up for her capture. The temple needed their annoying Tanuki mascot gone. Luckily, they hadn't found her Tanuki sized hideout under the stones of the temple yet. Because if they did her naps would be very much interrupted. And she needed those to regain her energy to transform with her leaf necklace.

Speaking of energy, she was hungry and wanted food. She decided to try her luck at the Ironshire market today, because yesterday she'd gotten her fluffy but smacked with a broom. The old lady at the fields was as sharp as ever. She wanted an orange so badly. Those were her absolute favorite. And today she decided to try begging.

Tanukis weren't just shapeshifting spirits. They were actual animals who scampered about. Much like a kitsune, people had a hard time telling whether it was an actual animal or a kitsune. She was lucky she didn't have nine tails like a kitsune though, because she looked just like an animal right now. The only thing that could give her away was the leaf necklace dangling from her neck.

She went up to a salesman, sat on her hindlegs with her paws up, and whimpered like a dog would. But the salesman wasn't buying it. He rolled up a newspaper, yelled, "Get lost, rat!" and then threw it at her. She whimpered for real and scampered off to the shadows of an alleyway. She pawed at her leaf necklace. Maybe acting as a little kid would be better, because people were less suspicious. She could weasel her way into the crowds with no problem and act like a mortal. At that point, stealing her favorite food would become much easier.

 

[Kumii]

Battle on the Iron Bridge - The Final Battle
Weather: Clear
Phase: Enraged (All damage dealt by the Knight is now doubled.)
Current Focus: Mika

Spoiler: Mood Music

Rai's attacks got in, but only about two slashes before the Knight began parrying his attacks. Sparks flying for their swords as they slid off each other. The Knight would finally catch one and would bounce back Rai's sword and start a thrusting motion before yet another Void arrow came flying in from Skyla which pulled the Knight back before it could get off successfully again, "That damned archer. Must kill her..." The Knight began walking towards Skyla with malicious intent but was stopped by a surprise attack from a Bakaneko, "What the--" The Knight shook his arm that the cat held on to, "Get off me you dumb, Baka--" The Knight was interrupted by another surprise attack.

A downward punch by Nia, the one was thought to have been forgotten, that would cause him to stagger back a bit. The Knight finally managed to shake off the cat and Nia and refocused his attention on Skyla and he began walking towards her.

"You'll have to get through me first me, Knight." Mika said, his lance in a battle ready position.

"Get out of my way!" The Knight yelled back before bringing his sword up for a downward slam, Mika quickly parried this and slashed the Knight across the chest which made the Knight recoil back and stagger to his knees. Mika put himself back into his battle ready stance, his face was filled with determination and focus for the Knight's death.
AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark

The Headless Horseman (23,250/32,250 (72%) Vitality)

Skyla the Dark Flash and Mika the Flaming SpearLocation: Iron Bridge
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
Skyla saw Rai land a couple hits before being parried, "He's being too aggressive..." she mumbled to herself before readying another void arrow and firing it at the Knight, which did its intention but also happen to temporarily make Skyla the focous of the Knight. Skyla looked terrified, "Uh oh... did not think that throu-" then Mika stepped in front of the Knight. Seriously, could this man be anymore of a white knight for Skyla? That said, Skyla rushed to Rai's side, "Hey, Rai, you okay? You're being too aggressive... you have help here you know.."

Mika stepped out in front of the Knight as it focused his attention on her, "Oh no you don't, you bitch." He mumbled as he did so. The Knight went for an attack but Mika saw it coming and parried it, performing a slash across the Knight's chest as a counter attack. Now the Knight focused on Mika, "It's just you and me. Let's dance."

Nia of the Storming FistLocation: Iron Bridge
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
Nia shook herself out of her trance when she heard Mateo and saw Cora attack the Knight. SHe knew exactly what to do and followed-up his attack with a powerful downward punch that staggered the Knight but she was just as quickly thrown away again. Nia cannot catch a break from these throwbacks, eh?

Luckily she recovered herself and slid along the ground on her feet, "Seems like we're doing damage now. Let's keep it up!" She cheered everyone on which seemed about the only thing she could do right now...

Tiche of the Black Knife, Loathesome Kumii and Little ManaLocation: Unknown area of Ironshire
Mentions: SharkBark AlphaBlueWolf
Current Weather: Clear

Spoiler: You know what this is

Kumii had brought Tiche back but Tiche was against it, "Brother! Why did you do that?! I could've killed that brat!" Kumii glanced at Tiche, "Yeah? And what about the fox? It left but what if it decided to stay? I would've been down a sister. You know you can't beat that fox, Tiche." Tiche clenched her teeth and sighed, crossed her arms and a looked away, "Yeah, I know. I only went willingly with you to protect little Mana, you know." Kumii gave a slight smile but it just as quickly faded, "My Mana could be protected without your help."

Speaking of the little Devil- I mean Demon, Mana appeared, "What's this about 'My Mana', papa?" Kumii was taken by surprise and fumbled over his words, "Uh- Well, I--" Tiche interjected, "Well he was just saying how much he loved you." This comment flustered Kumii, "Sh-shut up!"

Both Mana and Tiche chuckled. It was odd to hear Tiche chuckle or laugh or show any kind of emotion but Mana seemed to have a certain gift of making the people around her seem more lively, "Hey, papa, can I go out and play?" Kumii cleared his throat and thus, his thoughts, "O-Of course! Just don't get into too much trouble like you Auntie Tiche." Mana jumped happily, "Yay!"

Mana ran off and Kumii yelled after her, "Be careful, ya little gremlin!" Mana gave a wave back before vanishing from their sight. With Mana gone, Kumii decided to go and investiagte the strange smell he smelt earlier. So he opened one of his dark mist portals, "Stay here, Tiche. Please, in case Mana gets into trouble I want one of us to remain on standby to assist her." Tiche nodded, "Sure." Before Kumii disappeared from sight and appeared on a rafter above where Akuhei, Kuragiri, Castro and Rori were.

Kumii sniffed the air. Four mortals. One seemed to be lustful... and not in the good way and one was one he recognized but for now he focused on the lustful scent, 'Mmm, bloodlust... so that was the strange smell earlier.' He would just watch for now until he was spotted or he got bored.

 

[SharkBark]

Mood: Alert and Ready to Battle

Rai Ikari

Thunderous Hunter

Bridge to Iron Fortress

"Shit!" Rai yelled out as one of his katanas almost fell out of his hand.

His attempt to split the Knight into two had failed, but he had still managed to get two hits in. Now, he was facing the Knight's skilled parries, and he was losing. Rai's blades began to release red hot sparks everywhere as Rai rapidly slashed at every opening he saw, just to have them closed by the Knight's quick reaction speed. Sweat began to drench his body and his lungs began to sting as he kept on trying for the kill, seeming to be desperate to see his foe in pain. He was eager for the kill, and it was putting him at a disadvantage.

The Samurai grunted as his blades slid off of the Knight's sword. It was unexpected for him, so Rai lost his balance for a moment and let the Knight grab a katana, and he began to bounce back the katana. Rai's eyes widened in fear as he felt his grip on the hilt begun to loosen, and the though of losing his katana at the moment scared him. He was in a bad position, a horrible one at that, and he could only pray that something helped him out.

That something was Skyla's void arrow temporarily distracting the Knight and changing its focus. Rai immediately took this small breakthrough to leap back several feet from the Knight and created some distance between the two of them. The Knight began to now walk towards Skyla with visible intent to kill, but to his surprise--and Rai's-- he was stopped by Cora, who bit into the Knight's sword wielding hand. The Knight easily shook him off, but the bite itself was enough for Nia to land a downwards punch that staggered him for a bit, but he shook that off and continued his advance towards Ms. Junia. It's like he was made of sheer willpower, nothing was stopping him at the moment.

Rai prepared to charge forward and fend off the Knight from Skyla, but Mika was the person who got there first, and he deflected the Knight's attack towards him and then delivered his own slash that brought the Knight to his knees. Guess that sheer willpower thing didn't mean shit now. Now it was Mika's turn to give the Knight hell, and he looked like he had no intent to fail.

"Hey, Rai, you okay? You're being too aggressive... you have help here you know.."

"Yeah, my bad." Rai replied. " I got too eager for the kill. I just want this all to be over, y'know?"

He had to admit, he did have times where he just wanted to end the battle as quickly as possible. And each time he had pure intent to kill. Not exactly bloodlust, but desperation. Rai tried to let go of the habit long ago, but it seemed to follow him to this battle. It had gotten him into some real trouble before, and he couldn't risk it happening again.


Ikari Estate, Ironshire, 1331 --- Rai Ikari, 16 Years Old

6 years ago from today, our Thunderous Hunter, Rai Ikari, was only but a confused 16v year old, much like Mateo now. At his family's newly owned mansion, he sits outside on the branch of an oak tree white tipped leaves that droop downards onto young Rai's cloud colored hair.

"Raii!" A voice suddenly screamed out from inside.

"Yeah?" Rai called out, his voice much squeakier than his current rough tone. No answer came from the house. "Yes? Is there something you need?" he said again. But once again, there was no answer to his question.

With an annoyed sigh, Rai stood up on the branch and decided to attempt to get a look into the house from where he was at the moment. All he could see though was the silhouette of his little sister running around the house. She wants to play Princess of Ironshire again, I bet my katana it's that. Rai thought to himself. I'm sick of this, why won't she just wait for mom to come back?

Still annoyed, Rai leapt from his tree branch, landed a bit lopsided on his feet, and then made his way towards the mansion.

"Yo, if we're gonna play pretend right now, can I just be a civilian? I'm sick of having to play as The Unholy One. Every time I attempt to attack you, you change your character into Titania and start beating me up! My arm still hurts from you kicking my elbow, y'know!" Rai looked around skeptically as he got yet again more silence. "Aurora?"

"Right here!" Rai heard from his left. He though it was his sister at first, but it sounded way too high. Almost like a falsetto. As if someone was attempting to mimic her voice.

As he quickly turned to the source of the voice, the first thing Rai saw was the sole of someone's foot. It slammed itself into his nose and brought him all the way to the ground before resting itself heavily onto his chest. Rai let out a painful gasp for air as he struggled to pry the foot off of his ribcage.

"Ah, hello there." A tall, muscular man with long black hair and a pink scar over his left eye looked down at him. "You must be the brother. Nice to meet you."

"Agh! Wh-Who are you?" Rai barely sputtered out. "And..where's...Aurora?"

"Calm down, she's over there." The man pointed to the left towards the kitchen. Rai looked over to where his pale fingers pointed to and his eyes widened in pure shock.

Aurora was sprawled out on their wooden kitchen table with her hands and legs bound to each other and her mouth gagged with a sock.

"Aurora!" Rai yelled out, which cost him most of his remaining oxygen. "Aurora, hold on! I'll get you out of that!" He then returned his attention to the intruder and narrowed his eyes with anger. "Leave my sister out of this!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I have no intent to hurt her, just let me-"

The man with the scarred eye had no choice but to leap back and into the air as Rai released a surge of electricity from his body. Once the man's foot had left his chest, Rai gasped for air and began to bring himself back to his feet.

"Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you two, I'm here for your father."

"My father isn't here." Rai answered coldly. "He hasn't been here for two years!"

"Oh. I guess I'll leave then."

"No, no, sir. That's not how it works here. You're not just gonna assault my sister and leave unharmed."

The intruder let out a hearty chuckle and adjusted his feet into a fighting stance made for fighters who used martial arts that involved their legs. Taekwondo. Rai retaliated with a wide stance that had one foot behind the other and one of his knees in the air. Muay Thai.

"Just as feisty as your father, I see. Very well, let's get this over with. I'll do my best not to kill you."

Rai and his intruder face off in the midst of this flashback, both of them ready to give their all in an all out martial arts battle. One fights for their ego, the other for the sake of their family. The showdown that brings Rai into his desperation to kill his opponent starts soon, but not now. The beginning of the battle starts in the next post.

(had time to post, so here ya go)



Kumii AlphaBlueWolf

Code by Serobliss

Mood: Determined

Castro Smith

Blue-Eyed Bandit

Unknown, Ironshire

Faster than Castro's eyes could process, Rori came to his rescue, saving him from being murdered, and giving him a teammate in this battle against Akuhei. She quickly rushed into the battle with her wings expanding with power and quickly stabbed her dagger into an unsuspecting Akuhei's back. He let out a confused, "Hm?" as it happened and looked back too late and saw Rori claw into his back, leaving burns, and then backed away to Castro's side.

"Need a rescue Blue Eyes?"

Castro scoffed at her irrelevant speed and squinted a bit to see if he had saw that right. He was nearly blind without his glasses, so maybe she wasn't actually moving that fast.

"No, just about to have a friendly chat with Akuhei here as he bashes my face in." Castro responded dryly. "These quips are getting out of hand, Rori."

Akuhei groaned loudly and began to move his coat. Underneath it, gauze was wrapped around his waist and red and blue tattoos covered most of his torso.

"Ruin coat. Holes in coat now." Akuhei sternly. "No worries, though. Let me tell something. Do you know reason some people wear bandage around waist? Eh?"

"No, and we aren't here for a lesson, dumbass." Castro said.

"I'll tell you anyway. Because if we get stabbed some place there, it'll keep guts from falling out. Blood too."

Castro winced at that fact. That means Rori's little entrance was useless and barely affected him.

"You, I think, are not wearing gauze. So, when I stab into your lungs, heart, or spine, guts spill! So, you two ready to die?"
(Not gonna color the text because I did, but, I refreshed on my phone and THE MOST OF THE POST WAS DELETED. God, this sucks on mobile)

Mood: Annoyed

Akuhei

Shugosha

Unknown, Ironshire

Check Castro's part of the post.

Love,

Shark

Kumii AlphaBlueWolf

Code by Serobliss

 

[Kumii]

Chapter IV: A Revelation Unbound Within SecretsA Warning
Weather: Clear

Spoiler: Mood Music

The Knight took attack after attack from Mika. His overpowering blows bringing the Knight to his knees until the Knight put up his hands in defeat, "Wait! Please!" Mika stopped mid attack and the Knight took off his helmet, revealing an all too familiar face for Skyla.

"Uncle?! You- Wait but how? I thought--" The Knight slowly got up, throwing his sword to ground to show he wasn't a threat, "Lady Skyla, I--" Cerah soon found himself with a greatsword to his throat, "You killed... my parents!!" Skyla yelled, "And the entirety of the Desert Kingdom!!" Skyla took a few breaths, "You better have a damn good explanation, Uncle." She said quietly.

Cerah sighed, "I know.. I am.. truly regretful of that day but let me explain, please!" Skyla looked at Cerah for a moment before giving him a little nod.

21 years ago...
Cerah could be seen sanding before Reedus, "My King. You summoned me?" Reedus nodded at Cerah, "Indeed I have, my brother, we have a problem..." Cerah looked worried for a moment, "I have a plan to cure our kingdom of its civil unrest... one of us, however, must be painted a villain." Cerah looked down then bowed his head, "I understand, my king. I will bear burden for the kingdom."

Reedus then went on to explain the details of the plan that would bring about the downfall of the Desert Kingdom.

Present Day...
Skyla took a step back in shock, "My father, he- it was his fault?" Cerah looked at Skyla, "In order to ensure that civil unrest wouldn't tear apart the Nation, your father, the King, elected to sink the Kingdom by destroying the crystal that kept it afloat. However, to prevent the reputation of the Junia family to fall too far, we had setup a 'bad guy'."

"You..." Cerah nodded, "Yes, me. I accepted the task with honor to protect our family." Skyla dropped her sword, "B-But Uncle everyone hates you. I hated you-" Cerah nodded again, "I know, that was the price I had to pay for our family's safety, but My Lady, your father left a message. He said to return to the Desert Nation, find our Sunken Kingdom and restore it. War is coming and Rhythm Nation is going to need our strength."

A portal opened up behind them and the Death Knight stepped through, "Oh no..." Thinking quickly, Cerah grabbed his sword and began to clashing with the Death Knight, "Go! Go now! All of you!" He struggled, "I... can't hold him for long...! Find the Kingdom...! Restore... it!" He shouted once more, begging everyone to leave.
AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark

Skyla the Dark Flash and Mika the Flaming SpearLocation: Iron Bridge
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf SharkBark
Current Weather: Clear
Mika stepped aside to let Skyla deal with her Uncle. He put his lance on his back and let the events unfold, 'Wait, Skyla is from the Desert Nation? That barren wasteland was once a kingdom??' he thought. A few more things said, 'Wait, Skyla can restore her Sunken Kingdom?! I am so confused...'

His thoughts were interrupted by the Death night appearing, before Mika could react, Cerah had already confronted the spiky Knight. Instead, Mika spent his time trying to tear Skyla away from running to her Uncle's side, "Sky, please..." He held her around the waist and whispered into her ear, "I know he's your only remaining family alive right now but he's buying us time. He needs you escape, so please... leave with us." Skyla turned to hug Mika for a minute before escaping with with everyone else.

(Sorry had to steal the spotlight lol)

 

[AlphaBlueWolf]

Mateo looked back at Skyla when she murmured about Rai. He looked over, seeing the fresh cuts on the knight, but also seeing Rai's attack get parried. Skyla's arrow whizzed by, creating another vortex and injuring the knight, but that only seemed to anger him. He looked over to the both of them and Mateo made an audible squeak. If he came over here and tried to fight in close range, Mateo wasn't sure he could handle that.

Cora and Nia bought them some time and Mateo tried to think of something. But he was ill equipped and lacked training. For his first few battles he'd done alright, but his body was running on pure adrenaline and that wouldn't help his mind focus on something. Cora got thrown off from his bite attack which had surprisingly been in just enough time to save Rai. Mateo would absolutely be beaming if he wasn't worried about Cora. Looks like the cat was warming up. In Cora's perspective though, he really wasn't. It was all because of Mateo and his lousy peer pressure.

"Cora!" He yelled. A look of worry traced his face. If you thought Mateo was too young for a battle like this, well just look at Cora. He was two years younger than Mateo, at fourteen, and had pretty much been locked away from the world by his overprotective family. He was lucky they'd taught him magic or else Mateo and him would be dead at this point. Plus, he'd already been wounded on his rump and now he'd been sent flying across the battlefield. But the cat was resilient and crawled his way back up to his paws with a growl of defiance.

And now Skyla and Mateo were still left wide open, with Mateo being too worried about Cora to think up something that could help. Luckily, Mika stepped in. Skyla ran to Rai's side while Mika attacked the knight. He smiled as he watched Skyla be a bit motherly to their friend. Looks like he wasn't the only one who acted like a mother hen sometimes.

Mika brought attack after attack after attack and with it the knight started slipping. Eventually, he put up his hands for surrender. His bird cawed loudly, resonating with Mateo's intent to protect his friends. He looked at the bird and put up a hand, telling it to wait. If he wanted to wave a white flag, then Mateo would honor that. He wasn't a killer, even if this guy had tried to take his friend.

The knight unveiled himself and Skyla called him uncle. Wait, this guy was her uncle?! "The guy who was spouting about hope?" Mateo murmured. He went up to Cora and the cat let him pick him up. He realized Cora was breathing heavily and his side was caked in dust. That wound on his rump must have given him some trouble.

Mateo walked back up to where everyone listened to Cerah's story. He found himself getting angry which wasn't an emotion Mateo seemed to show often. Even if he hadn't been born in the Desert Nation, the desert was his home, and all this made him angry. They killed numerous people just because they had a problem within the kingdom. The Rhythm Nation had a bunch of problems, but they weren't killing their people. He shook his head in disapproval. Mateo couldn't explain what he was feeling, other than the fact that he really wanted to punch this guy.

Just then, a portal opened, and another knight stepped out. Except this one had spiky armor and radiated an uncomfortable feeling. Mateo's arms shook upon the sight of him. Cora gave a soft meow and nuzzled his arm, but his supportive companion wasn't helping. He almost let go of Cora, but they were lucky that the cat clawed up his arm before the hold had given way. "Mateo." He whispered in his ear. Black sludge dripped down from Mateo's right arm. He gripped it hard with his left to try to stabilize it but the power the Death Knight radiated was so unnerving. He looked like he was at the tournament when everyone was going nuts after learning the grounds were breached by some mysterious force. At that negative energy... and the Death Knight wielded the negative energy well.

Cerah demanded for them to go, with Skyla not leaving until Mika convinced him. Mateo too was slow to get the message considering his eyes were trained on the Death Knight. It was like he was in some kind of trance, and he could feel the black sludge gathering around his arm. The longer he was in the vicinity of the Death Knight, the more it would gather. So, he turned tail and ran with the others.

Once they were in a safer location, and all winded, Mateo went off.

"Dios Mio!" He yelled. "That guy... I can't believe this." He paced around while holding his arm. "Just sinks an entire nation for no good reason! Kills a bunch of people and makes life in the desert that much harder! My father and mother could've been happier in the Desert Kingdom. My father suffered so much. He knew about the kingdom, talked about it like it was his home. And they all just- UGH!"

"That other guy too. What was his deal, huh? Why does looking at him just make me so...?" He kicked a pebble and tried to get the steam out of him. He wasn't being fair to Skyla, who was really hurt right now. Cora gave a meow at Mateo. Dealing with him like this was tricky. It could go wrong in a matter of seconds, and you didn't want it to go wrong. But Cora also knew the teen needed support. He seemed to have a lot of regret over making his family's life 'harder' according to him. And now he knew that their life would've been easier had the kingdom survived. Maybe even his own life.

Cora padded over to him and brushed around his legs but Mateo was still angry and clenched his fists.



"Well, any quips you get from now on you brought on yourself." She gestured to Kuragiri and let Castro figure out why she was so mad at him. She turned her gaze to Akuhei. Now she had another bastard to deal with and this one didn't seem at all fazed with her attack. And he told her why.

"Damn." She murmured. Well, that was a bummer. Created more work for them too. But Akuhei was a damn fool for telling them that. Now they knew how to make their attacks have an effect on the guy. As long as he didn't punch their brains out first.

"Ready to die? Not really." She answered. "And I don't think Blue Eyes is either." She flashed Castro a look, then looked back to the holes in Akuhei's coat. The holes that now uncovered the bandages wrapped around his stomach. "Hey, Castro. You've got a pair of engineered scissors on you, because it's time to do some snipping." She was trying to be clever and cover up her plan. Hopefully Castro would be smart enough to catch on because even if she thought Akuhei was a bumbling idiot, she knew better than to just say her plot in the open. And hopefully her usage of his actual name would get him to recognize that it was important.

She decided to start them off, rushing in and slicing at a hole where Akuhei's bandages showed. A burnt-up hole in his coat showed to have some, the hole coming from her opening attack. She didn't know how thick it was, but hopefully her golden dagger would end up doing some damage to the bandages.



Aiko took up her leaf necklace in her paws and placed it on her head. The next thing you knew her form shifted, and she was a little girl again. She wasn't sure the form would hold considering it took a lot of energy. The only energy she currently had was from napping and even that was a thin line. She hadn't been getting a lot of sleep lately considering those people were trying to hunt her down. Jokes on them, she didn't have a spirit connection to sever. Well, jokes on her, that meant she was mortal.

She went out of the alleyway and trudged along as a little girl, this time no one staring at her. She looked longingly at the oranges but knew it would be risky to go begging again. It also wasn't festival time, so even if the crowds were thick at the market, it would be harder to steal. Festival time was always easy pickings considering no one was really paying attention to the stalls. All you had to worry about was the influx of guards.

She needed a quick meal to make sure her form would hold, then she could actually go after the oranges. She could spend her time begging for money, or actually making it, but stealing held a spot in her heart. Technically it wasn't going against her father's rules considering she needed to do it to survive. That made stealing alright. And right now, she was itching to steal.

So, she ran back and forth in the crowds, surveying a stall to steal from. She could smell the scent of baked goods and sweet fruits. One stall she noticed was outside a bakery and being run by a baker who was going in to get his latest batch. Easy pickings. She crept up to the table and hid under the cloth of the stall. Her hand reached out and grabbed a small tartlet off the table. She recognized the bakery, which brought offerings to the temple she lived at. Aiko dashed out of the table with her snack in hand.

 

[Kumii]

Skyla the Dark FlashLocation: Outside the Iron Fortress
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf
Current Weather: Clear
Skyla noticed Mateo went off by himself and was visibly angry. She had a look of worry and decided to carefully approach him, "Hey... How are you doing?" Skyla crossed her arms in a passive manner under her chest, "I... Uh I realize that you may not have known the Kingdom all that much... or-or the motives of my father but I..." She paused, she was stuttering and fumbling her words, "I hope that uh, what he does- er did doesn't condemn me in your eyes." She paused again, "I mean I hope you don't hate me because of his actions?" She nodded, "Yeah that's what I meant." Skyla looked away, "I don't know what kind of connection you had to the Desert Nation but uh- the way you spoke about it earlier... it just feels like that connection is deeper then you let on and I don't want you hate me because of what happened."

Skyla wanted to give Mateo a hug but decided not to, "But I will restore the Kingdom... I don't know how but I'll find a way. I promise!" Skyla turned away to walk away before turning around a giving a small wave, "Take your time... okay?" She said in a soft voice before going to rejoin Mika and the others.

Mana the Lightning DemonLocation: Outside the Iron Fortress
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf
Current Weather: Clear
Mana had traveled quite a ways but for a Demon it was merely a hop, skip and a jump away. Literally. Mana saw three people, two humans and a Spirit taking the form of a cat. New people to interact with! But the smaller human looked like he was angry and the female human was walking away. They hadn't seemed to notice Mana but now was her time to pounce- I mean introduce herself. She patted her hair down and made sure she was all pretty-like and jumped down from the ledge she sat on, "Hup!" She landed on her feet and struck a pose, "And she sticks the landing! 10 points to Gryffindor!" She dusted herself off and approached Mateo and the Bakaneko, "Hey! I like your cat! Does he always hide out in that form or is it just because he can't risk the mortals finding out what he actually is?" She inquired, looking at Mateo with her hands behind her back.

She looked at Mateo inquisitively but there was also a knowing tone under that. This Demon looked smarter then her age would lead others to believe but only someone who could perceive that could know.

Patrick Cordova and "Sammy"Location: Ironshire Rooftop
Current Weather: Clear
Patrick and Sammy are sitting on the roof of their house in Ironshire. Patrick lets out a large sigh, Sammy takes notice, "Everything okay, Master?" Patrick shoots a glance at Sammy, "Sammy, what did talk about when referring to me? You're my best friend, not my servant." He said. Sammy paused for a moment, "Forgive me, Ma- er, Patrick."

He sighed again, "Everything's fine, Sammy. Just.. enjoying the scenery, I guess." Patrick looked over to Sammy, "Hey, Sammy? About what happened 6 months ago..." Sammy tilted her head inquistively, "You refer to the kidnapping?" Patrick nodded, "Yeah, that Death Knight character... what do we know about him?" Sammy tilted her head again, "Am I to understand you intend to go after him?"

Patrick paused and blushed slightly, "N-No! I'm just..." Patrick lowered his voice, "...worried about the girl he took.. I wanna know if he's any threat to us..." Sammy smiled slightly, "Understood. Luckily, I did some reserach on him using the Ironshire Library." Patrick looked at Sammy with surprise, "When did you manage that?!" Sammy gave him a wink, "A girl has her secrets, my dear. Anyways, I found out that this Death knight has four 'Generals'."

She held up an arm and one finger, "The first, and weakest one, is known only as 'The Headless Horseman'. The Omen of the Apocalypse and a feared foe for bringing about apocalypses." The echo of a horse neigh was heard as if it was a metaphor, "The Second, once an assassin for the extinct Order of the Black Knife, she crawls in the night and stealthily takes out her foes. Tiche of the Black Knife." She put up a third finger, "The Third, well no-one knows just who it is but some say that they're the second strongest General." Patrick looked at Sammy with a hint of terror in his eyes, "S-So wh-who's the fourth?" Sammy put up a fourth finger, "The Fourth, the Death Knight can't put this one under a spell so he uses leverage in the form of his sister, Tiche. Kumii the Loathesome Demon Lord."

Patrick looked around, "So, all we have to do is beat these four Generals and we win?" Sammy smiled and nodded, "Yes, exactly." Although, that wasn't exactly true but Patrick didn't need to know that...

 

[AlphaBlueWolf]

Cora wasn't helping too much, not with that knight guy's influence still on him. He couldn't explain why it was that he had so much power over him and his little... gift. Maybe it was just because Mateo was pretty attuned to emotions. Well, the negative ones. They had a certain impact on him, and that guy just radiated negativity and suffering.

But he started feeling bad about his little outburst when Skyla came up to him. He could feel the black sludge around his arm festering, and he willed it to stop, but he had little control over it. He was glad that Skyla and that knight didn't have much family resemblance or else the sludge would probably be worse. Her hair was the color of ravens with a mysterious purple fade towards the end. He had no idea where that came from, because Skyla's hair had been one solid color the day they met. Or maybe the sludge was clouding his memory as well as his arm. Apart from maybe skin tone, there wasn't much else unless you counted their affinity for huge swords. Cerah Junia had more of a sandy blonde hair, reminding him of the color of sand. Nope, that was a bad thought. Made his arm feel even worse. Because now he was home sick for the desert landscape as well as reminded that Cerah was one of the two responsible for the Desert Kingdom's collapse. Mateo's eye twitched with agitation as he simply said, "Hey." It wasn't from Skyla, but the sheer weight of keeping the black sludge under control and out of sight.

Skyla sounded a little bit awkward, like him. She talked about how she hoped he wouldn't hate her for her father and uncle's actions. And that was utterly insane. He valued people on their actions and Skyla had always tried to protect him. Plus, he was pretty sure she was a child when all that went down so there's no way she had a hand in it.

She spoke about how he had a deeper connection to the desert than he was letting on. He wasn't really sure about that. He'd traveled with his adoptive parents to avoid the dunes, learning about survival from his parents. His survival skills were keen, and he knew sometimes it was better to run than to fight. Call him a coward, but it's not like you could fight literal sand. There were always little hints of his family gift. How he always had to wear his special gloves or else he'd decay something, how being in a crowd of restless people made him angry and anxious, and the times black sludge spilled out of his injuries with no explanation for years. His adoptive parents were the ones who knew more than they were letting on and kept it from him for years. Mateo had been so angry when it first happened, and his parents finally told him what was going on. And then he tried to figure out a way to stop it with no avail so far.

Skyla promised to restore the kingdom, then walked away with a soft smile and told him to take his time. He simply nodded, not trusting himself with the knot of tension inside of him and the black sludge that dripped down his arm again. He looked down at it, willing it to go away but it wouldn't. That's not really how it worked as far as he knew.

Finally, when Skyla was out of ear shot, Cora spoke up. "Mateo, you need to get it under control."

"I know, I know." He sighed. "It's just hard. No one can understand. The only person who could gave me up. And I can't find anyone else in my family." He watched as more sludge dripped from the sleeve of his ruana. If he could just separate himself from the group for a bit, then maybe he could stop the sludge from eating him whole.

There was a subtle sound that came behind him and then a new voice which didn't help his problem. He twirled around and brandished his staff and book, but his phoenix had disappeared once the battle was clearly over. Besides, he didn't need a phoenix when he looked down. There was a small girl with red eyes and white hair. He lowered his weapons and breathed a sigh. The girl commented on Cora, asking if he was always in that form or if it was just because of mortals.

Cora had been immediately on edge and now he hissed out a response. "Since you know that I'm a spirit you can address me! And I'm not his damn pet either!"

"Cora!" He argued back, a little too loud for what was usual for Mateo. Cora bristled at him, seeming a little frightened. "Sorry. You know why, but still. Sorry." He turned back to Mana. "To answer your question, it's because of mortals. It's a lot easier to navigate mortal towns when people were tricked into thinking he was some regular cat." Mateo found this child strange. She seemed to have years of wisdom in her eyes but looked to be around twelve. Besides that, she'd been able to tell Cora was a spirit just at a glance. He'd had experience dealing with kids from being a traveling healer, but this one threw him for a loop. Should he treat her like any other kid or an adult? That wasn't helping him relax at all.

"I think the mortals in our group are nice enough, but I don't know how they'll react to him being a spirit, so we decided he'd stay in that form for now. Just until we could gage their thoughts on spirits. But his spirit scent kind of gives him away sometimes."

Cora jumped back in with another sharp-tongued comment, "What's it to you anyways, demon?"

Mateo looked baffled, "Wait, she's a- you know what that actually makes sense." He decided to bend down to her level and asked, "What's your name? And why are you out here on your own? It's dangerous out here. I should know, I almost just got combusted back there."

 

[Kumii]

Mana the Lightning DemonLocation: Outside the Iron Fortress
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf
Current Weather: Clear
Mana looked a little surprised when Cora spoke up. She took a small step back but quickly retook her original position and listened to Mateo, "Hey... you refer to the humans in your group as 'mortals'... do you not think yourself the same species?" It was a genuine question, one that likely wouldn't get answered when Cora snapped again. She looked away dejectedly but looked back at Mateo when he asked her name, "It's Mana! I'm the daughter of the super powerful Kumii! So, I think I can handle myself, Mister!" It occurred to her that they might not actually know him, "Ah.. nevermind that." Mana pointed at Mateo's arm, "May I see that?" She grabbed his arm with the sludge.

She began to inspect it, "What is this? Are you cursed?" She allowed some of the sludge to fall on her hand but it didn't seem to have any affect on her. She raised the sludge to her nose and sniffed it. It was an unpleasant scent and made her involuntarily let out a hiss, "That smells rotten... like death." She let go of Mateo's arm and took a step back, "You ARE cursed... what happened to you?"

 

[AlphaBlueWolf]

Cora's snappiness had made the girl sad. He would've scolded the cat had he been in his regular state. He just didn't trust himself right now. But Mana seemed to rebound after Mateo asked for her name. She told him she was Mana, the daughter of the all-powerful Kumii. Mateo and Cora tilted their heads in unison. Who was this Kumii? "Uh...?" She told them to forget about it, because obviously they didn't know who that was. Mateo guessed that this Kumii character was just some regular person, but that in his daughter's eyes he was basically a superhero. That was sweet. He remembered when he was younger and he'd look up to his adoptive father, valuing all his lessons. He just wished he could understand his birth father's motivations for giving him up. 'Protecting him' didn't work for Mateo.

Suddenly Mana was interested in his arm. "¿Que?" He exclaimed as she grabbed his arm. Cora hissed while Mateo tried to pull his arm away, put his arm encased in sludge was already out to see. She asked if he was cursed, and he was so shocked he didn't know what to say. She'd hit the nail on the head in a matter of seconds.

Mana let some of the sludge fall on her, which was a mistake. Sometimes it had the same effect as his hands, decaying the things around him. Sometimes it was just nasty smelling sludge. Depended on if it was activated or not, which was something he never understood. "No don't!" He yelled as she lifted it up to smell it.

Cora jumped on her when she let out a hiss, feeling like it was a threat. No one ever took well to Mateo being cursed. Cora himself had been scared the first time he'd seen the curse in real action, which was more than just the sludge, and also something he was sorry to admit. She let go of Mateo and stepped back possibly in fear, exclaiming that he was cursed. Cora bounced back to stand in front of Mateo and let out a snarl. If this demon even tried to hurt Mateo, he'd make her regret it.

Meanwhile, Mateo was trying to control the sludge. It dripped to the grass and made a patch wilt. He was panicking. "I-uh. Nothing happened to me." He looked at the sludge. "I was born with it. You could say it's a family issue." He looked back to Mana. She was smaller than Cora, so probably younger. Or at least a younger mind. She was probably scared out of her mind to know that he was cursed. "Look, its- I'm dangerous. You should leave before you get hurt." That wasn't a threat. He was genuinely worried about her safety around him. Mostly because he didn't know what he would do if it progressed. And it already was with how panicked he felt at the moment. It was climbing on his body, taking more and more control. That's how it always started before...

 

[Kumii]

Mana the Lightning Demon and Kumii the Loathesome Demon LordLocation: A rooftop?
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf
Current Weather: Clear
!!! Critical Choice !!!
Mana glanced at Cora then Mateo. She saw the way he looked at her, like she was a child. The Bakaneko seemed to protect him, "If you think I'm scared... of you. I'm not." Mana recomposed herself, "Curses don't exactly affect Demons.. mostly cause we created them... well most of them anyways." She glanced back at Mateo, "And I'll have you know, I'm 500 years old. So you can quite looking at me like I'm some scared child--" She stopped herself when she felt a familiar presence behind her. Mana turned around and ran to hug the figure who had appeared via dark portal, "Daddy!" She yelled out. Turns out it was Kumii who had appeared.

Kumii put one arm around his daughter, who was in his arms, "Hey, Little Mana..." He said while staring at Mateo, his nose scrunched up, "Death..." Kumii glanced back towards the pair who were oddly distracted for now. He then looked back at Mateo then to Cora, "You. Come." He didn't really give them a choice and kinda forcefully teleported them away from Mika and Skyla.

He didn't teleport them far though, just to a nearby rooftop. Kumii sat down, his daughter gleefully sitting down next to him, "Come, sit. I don't bite... normally." Waiting a few moments for Mateo to sit down, Kumii explained something, "I apologize if I scared you. I don't mean you any harm. I am Kumii." Kumii pointed at the sludge, "I'm sure you know of the place known as Luminosa, yes?" Kumii thought for a second, "If you do end up going there, look for a man named Loki Ariyo. He's a General of the Death Knight like me but, also like me, he wants a way to free himself from the clutches of that putrid asshole." Kumii snarled lightly at the mention of the guy, "Sorry... I just hate the guy, he has my Sister under his "spell". Anyways, I'm sure he'll help you, just tell 'em I sent ya."

Mana got up and raised her hand, "I wanna go! Please, daddy?" Kumii glanced at Mana then to Mateo then back to Mana, "Fine... but don't cause them trouble, okay?" Mana nodded, Kumii looked back at Mateo, "Do you mind if she joins you? She likes adventure... also I think she's taken a liking to you." Kumii awaited Mateo's answer.

 

[AlphaBlueWolf]

"If you think I'm scared... of you. I'm not."

Those words rang through Mateo's head. All his life he could feel how much people were repulsed by him. When his sludge was active it smelled like a rotting dead corpse and that easily turned people off. Not to mention its destructive properties. Should someone come to find out about his curse he'd be pushed away and ratted out to the mob. Yet he still found himself longing for connections. Why would a monster wish for friendship? It's because he wasn't the terrifying beast that everyone thought he was. Some short twelve-year-old looking demon reaffirmed that for him. He was always looked at with pity, disgust, anger, hatred, and most of all fear. No one accepted the things they feared into society. And that was the situation with Mateo. But Mana wasn't scared. Not one bit. She looked at him with a tiny burning flame for a soul. A sparking ignition of indignation for his attempts at pushing her away.

Mateo's cheeks grew rosy, and his eyes shone. She didn't fear him, instead mad at his treating her like a child.

Mana recounted about how as a demon the curse and its decaying affliction wouldn't affect her and about how demons made curses. He'd heard about that. After all, his curse was said to be originated from a spirit. Or some type of god. The story never was too clear about the origins of the curse. Only that it started in one place. And he never wanted to set foot in that place because of that very same story. He wouldn't be welcomed.

Mateo started to feel bad when Mana exclaimed about how she was 500 hundred years old, "That's not what I-" He started and then felt winded that the kid he was talking to was older than him. She should be looking down on him as a kid, not the other way around. Besides, the point really wasn't that she was a child. He'd be telling Skyla and Mika to get away too should they find out. It wasn't something he was proud of, and he was scared of what he would do should the curse progress in that moment. Mana looking as if she were twelve had no factor on it. He'd just rather no one got hurt because of him and his family... trait.

He would've continued trying to explain himself except another figure popped out of a dark portal. Mateo looked straight through Mana and stared up at Kumii, slightly terrified by the random guy. Cora gave another hiss, a warning so that Mateo knew something about this guy seemed off. Mateo always trusted Cora's keen spirit intuition.

But Mana turned around and ran into the man's arms, exclaiming the word daddy as she did. Wait, as in her father? The man looked towards him and scrunched up his nose at the revolting smell of his sludge, making Mateo hold his arm in self-consciousness. Great, another person who thought he was the worst. That's exactly why he was always awkward and anxious around people.

Then Kumii told them to come, teleporting them forcefully to a rooftop while also successfully scrambling Mateo's stomach. He hunched over and put up his normal hand to his mouth. He thought he was about to throw up, felt like it too, but all he succeeded in was coughing up black sludge. Teleportation was not good for Mateo's curse, or his stomach.

Cora leaped up to perch on his shoulder and whispered. "New one's a demon, obviously. But there's something wrong about him. The child seems to have a mere fraction of his power, very well capable of destroying an entire nation on her own. But the older male is much stronger than that. There's something else. His scent... it smells eerily familiar to that spiky knight. There's something wrong about him. Be very careful with this."

Mateo nodded. He was so glad he had a spirit on his side to brief him on spirit related things. He didn't understand why other mortals were so hell bent on saying they were evil. Sure, Cora had a sharp tongue, but other than killing your ego and maybe freezing you to death he was harmless.

Mateo tried to scrape off the black sludge from his glove, flinging off to the side of the rooftop. Kumii and Mana had already sat down, Kumii prompting him to do the same, saying he didn't bite. But Mateo was well aware that if Kumii decided he could just kill him. Bad thing for both of them because it would activate the curse in a way that they didn't want. But that was the case with all spirits. They were on a level seemingly untouchable to mortals. Immortality, power, and a high affinity for magic. And Kumii seemed to have all three of those.

He decided to sit down, Cora still on his shoulder, as to not anger Kumii. He apologized for scaring him, since Mateo had clearly been terrified the second the guy stepped out of a portal, and then introduced himself as Kumii.

Kumii pointed to his sludge, well aware that Mateo was cursed, and asked if he knew of a place called Luminosa. Mateo nodded with a grim expression on his face. Oh, he knew of it alright. That's the place where both the story of his family and the curse originated. Every Cabrera could connect their roots right back to Luminosa. The whole city based its culture around it, so everyone there knew of the Cabrera Family Curse. Luminosa was a pretty big city, so he figured merchants would have spread the story to the corners of the world. That's why he had been Mateo Greenefield that day, instead of Mateo Cabrera. Mateo had never gone, since a lot of Cabrera's were scared to even set foot there, but he'd studied their culture well enough. Since it was his culture too.

If he had to guess, right now the Luminosans would be setting up for the Festival of Light. Marking the anniversary of the day the hero of Luminosa slayed the beast and freed the then smaller town of terror. Great, another festival where things would go horribly wrong. Well, as long as he could think up a lie to bring the group to Luminosa. It was better if they didn't know he was cursed. And if he could figure out a cure in Luminosa, then maybe they would never have to know. He could keep the friendships he'd made, instead of seeing them crumble before his eyes.

The thing is... the whole cure thing seemed impossible. Twelve generations, twelve whole generations of Cabrera's all shared the curse and none of them had ever found a cure. He knew the twelfth was supposed to be special, but he didn't think one kid could figure out how to stop the curse. Yeah, this festival didn't seem like it was gonna be good either. Wait, the festival...

Kumii told him that if he headed to Luminosa, that he should look for a guy named Loki Ariyo. He called him a general of the Death Knight, but Mateo had no idea who that was. He just knew he'd dealt with too many annoying knights that day. The thought of Cerah Junia made his sludge arm swell and bubble. Calm. If he remained calm, then it would help. He used his normal hand to stroke Cora while listening to Kumii, providing stress relief for him as well as a nice scratch for Cora. The sludge arm started to regain its human shape, very slowly though.

The snarl from Kumii was a little scary, since he did suspect he could rip both of them apart in a matter of seconds. He'd always heard demons were powerful spirits. But Kumii simply apologized and told him that Loki would help him if he knew Kumii sent him. Kumii seemed like a respectable sort of guy, a little scary but Mateo had seen and been through a lot the past few days. If he could deal with all that, then some demon really wasn't that scary. Maybe he was like Cora, soft on the inside with a rocky or well scarier exterior. Besides, he was offering some form of help, a chance to remedy his curse with a potentially powerful spirit, merely because he could. Or maybe because he'd entertained his daughter for a little while. Who knows?

Mateo nodded to the information but, before he could thank Kumii, Mana jumped in and asked if she could go. Mateo just looked kind of stunned considering Mana knew of his curse. But she did say she wasn't scared of him. He found it sweet. It was like how when he was treating babies and they pulled on his ruana sleeve or rested their heads on him. Mana would have to deal with him treating her like a child, even if he knew she was 500 years old. She seemed to act like a child anyways, and Mateo couldn't help getting that warm feeling when a kid did something cute and touching.

A smile expanded on his face as he watched Kumii agree and then make sure it was alright with him. The whole taken a liking to him definitely worked considering Mateo loved to be around kids. He always liked having child patients because of their cute natures. Besides, these two succeeded in making him calm and his sludge was going down and reforming into a regular arm. Which seemed like a weird thing given Cora's warning.

Mateo looked at Mana then back to Kumii. "Sure!" He said with tinted cheeks. He felt as good as when Cora had accepted him for who he was. Having someone who knew about his curse, but still wanted to stick around him just made him feel amazing. Mana hadn't seen the curse in full action yet, but he wasn't as scared to let her see it as he was with his group of new friends. She'd accepted the sludge, so hopefully she wouldn't be scared with the curse's full transformation. But the others hadn't seen the sludge or even knew he was cursed, so that was more of a leap of faith than he was willing to take at the moment. People had a history of being scared of him once they knew the truth. "Just so long as my group are ok with it. I don't want to make a decision on their behalf without them even knowing."

 

[Kumii]

Little Mana and Kumii the Loathesome Demon LordLocation: A rooftop?
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf
Current Weather: Clear
Kumii stood up and gave a light, regal bow, "You have my thanks... er..." Kumii shook his head, likely never meeting the kid again, "Ah, nevermind that. You have my thanks." Then Kumii stared at, well glared was more appropriate, Mateo, "Bring her back to me, safely or I promise you, and your little group, will feel my wrath." The tone shifted when he said this but Mana managed to shift it back by pushing Kumii back some, "Daddy! I trust him, you should too!" Kumii looked at Mana and nodded, "Fine." He knelt down and gave her a kiss on her forehead, "Be safe, Little Mana." Mana nodded, "I will, I will!"

Mana turned and ran, with arms spread out, towards Mateo and Cora, "Well, man-boy and cat... uh... Mr. Spirit, take me to your leader!" Mana giggled, "Let's go to the rest of your group!"

???Location: Somewhere near Gentry...
Current Weather: Clear
A man on his knees with an odd object in front of him. His hands folded in front of him as if praying, "O Great Goddess of War, I offer thee thy summoning item. Please take it and be summoned back into the physical realm..." The item began to glow a heavenly color. At that time a glowing golden Chinese serpent shot from the item and into the air, crashing back down in front of the man. The area around it was blinded with a gold light as a woman clad in a Japanese yukata emerged from the light. She carried a large black club, she swung it over her shoulder, "Ah... to be summoned back into the physical world..." She felt weaker however, "Hmm.. this weakness must be the limitations of this world... no matter. I'm here to wreck some shit! Yeah! Let's go!"

She swung around and pointed her club at the man who had summoned her, "You there! I demand you tell me where I am!" The man hesitated and stuttered, "U-Uh, G-Gentry City, G-Goddess." The Goddess thought for a moment, "Hmm... I feel like I wanted to do something..." Then it occurred to her, "That's right! I need to look for Serana! She disappeared when that... thing emerged." With that she opened a portal, "Hmm, so I have that. Neat." And walked through it.

???Location: Somewhere in Ironshire City
Current Weather: Clear
A man wearing a partial facemask covering his nose and mouth with long hair tied into a ponytail is on his knees, a sword lays in front . He looks as if he's in mediation in a seemingly empty room, a pair of headphones lay around his neck. A few minutes later, a commotion can be heard and the man slowly opens his eyes, revealing a striking color of brown irises. He leans down to grab his katana that lay in front of him and he slowly gets up to face the 3-4 men that have entered the room he was in, "Surrender yourself, Yunari!"

The man did not respond, instead slowly unsheathing his katana, "Shi no nioi ka? Yoshi. Itsu demo koi." The men charged, yelling. The man finished unsheathing his sword, "Byakko no ken o kurae!" He swing his katana around as he said this and the image of a white spectral tiger appeared. He one swift slash and sent the tiger at the men. They all fell without much fight.

The man sheathed his sword, "Sono teida ka? That was a good warm-up. Arigatō yo." The man then went back to kneeling and praying.

 

[AlphaBlueWolf]

Kumii stood from his sitting position and gave a bow which was far too polite for someone like Mateo. He was basically acting like a glorified babysitter for Mana and though he wasn't ashamed of that he just didn't think such a regal gesture was necessary. After all, Mateo was a roughneck. So, he did something a roughneck would definitely not do and stood to bow himself. "Uh, no problem, Sir!" His voice wavered with that awkward teen squeakiness of his. Cora just sighed on his shoulder.

He stood back up straight and was met with Kumii's glare. He basically threatened to kill him and his friends if Mana wasn't brought back safe. He let out an audible squeak while Cora growled. He didn't like when people were threatening Mateo. But luckily Mana lightened the mood before anything bad really happened, telling Kumii she trusted him. Kumii displayed some fatherly affection to Mana and Mateo realized he was just worried about his daughter. Did his father worry about him like that?

Mateo kind of dazed off thinking about his family until Mana came back over to him, exclaiming about meeting the rest of the group. "Wow, never introduced myself, did I?" He gave a glare at the sludge. "First off, I'm not-uh- 'man-boy'. My name's Mateo."

Cora simply gave a couple flicks of his tail in agitation, knowing Mana barely saved herself from calling him a cat. Mateo moved his shoulder to nudge him, and he gave a small groan. "It's Corazon if you have to know." He meowed with a slightly dismissive tone.

"Just call him Cora." Mateo interjected. Cora gave him a look of annoyance, but he didn't really have room to talk. The bakeneko really did like to be called Cora more, rather than his full name.

Mateo extended a hand, then took it back and replaced it with the regular one. He gave a giggle, but there was a look in his eyes that told how ashamed he was of his curse. "Well, it's nice to officially meet you, Mana." He gave a smile.

When introductions were out of the way, he sighed. With children it was good to lay down boundaries, right? So that they didn't get killed and their dad who was a very scary and powerful demon didn't turn him into a corpse. Besides, there were some important things he needed to get out of the way about himself.

Mateo walked to the edge of the rooftop, wondering how they were supposed to get down, or where they even were for that matter. "Ok, I know you're probably not gonna like this but, ground rules first. One, you can't tell my friends that I'm cursed or let it slip. They don't actually know, so it's kind of important." He turned to face Mana and gave her a serious look. "Two, Cora's a cat. They don't know about Cora being a spirit either, but Mika did smell his spirit scent before. I hope he just thinks it's from me. I kind of tricked him- well, anyways. It's up to you if you want to tell them you're a spirit. Just know that they're all mortals and I don't know how they'll react to it. Skyla and Mika seem pretty fine with spirits, but I don't know about Nia and Rai. Just keep that in mind about you and don't let Cora's secret slip. Three, stay with the group. Don't go running off and always stay where I can see you. I know your powerful but I'm kind of responsible for you now and I'd rather not let someone I'm responsible for get hurt. Four, I guess listen to me? You know like follow my lead and stuff, and my groups too. They're really good at the whole battle fighting thing. Besides, they're nice. I'm sure you guys will get along, if they're ok with this that is." Mateo thought for a second. "I think that's it really. Deal, right?"



Finch groaned as he heard a knock from his door. "What are you doing sleeping so late?" The annoyed voice of his stepsister rang through. He groaned again, even louder than the first. Why was Lark like this? She was constantly nagging him about what he was doing wrong. Didn't she remember he'd gotten hurt the day before. He'd tried to apprehend a criminal before his job even started. He'd gotten a pounding headache and a couple scrapes.

He rolled around in his bed and sneezed. He pried his eyes open and realized there were feathers in his bed. "Again?" He murmured.

Another bang. "You better not be sick!"

He wanted to tell Skylark to shut up so badly, but her and her mother were the only "family" he had here. He went to his dresser and looked in the mirror. "Yup, again." Feathers crested his blue hair. He picked one out and stared at it, then to the door. "Oh, crap-" Lark could not see this.

He frantically dusted out his hair for feathers and put them in his trash can, then scooped up the ones in his bed and did the same. The bandages from his arm caught on his bed post and ripped. "Seriously?" He went to get more bandages, then realized something. The wound wasn't there.

More banging. "Finch, come on! I have my own shit to worry about!"

"In a minute!" He yelled. He discarded the bandages and then opened the door. He had a small room in the guard's quarters. Nothing special. "Seriously, you don't have to wake me up."

Lark looked at him with annoyance. "My mother says otherwise. Like it or not we're family now, and my mother will get on my case if I don't take care of you."

Finch folded his arms. "Why does she even care so much?"

"Beats me." She looked him up and down. "By the way, that outfit is a really nice look on you. I'm sure the other members of the guard are going to love you." She sneered. "Well, jobs done." She waved and left.

Finch looked down at his outfit. "Shit." He murmured. He was still in his pajamas.

He shut the door and went to change into his work clothes and armor.

 

[Kumii]

Little ManaLocation: A rooftop?
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf
Current Weather: Clear
Mana listened as they introduced themselves, "Mattie and Cory!" She giggled, then they laid the ground rules out. She listened to that as well, "Well... why do you keep secrets from them? They are your friends, are they not? Do you not trust them?" She glanced at Mateo and Cora, "If they were truly your friends, they would remain at your side regardless of who you traveled with or your affliction, am I wrong? In fact, I think they'd want to help... don't you?" Mana continued to probe the reasoning, not realizing that she may be overstepping a boundary.

Kiko MateasLocation: Finch's Room
Interactions: AlphaBlueWolf
Current Weather: Overcast, Rain predicted
Kiko looked up at the sky, noticing the dark overcast, "Damn... looks like it's gonna rain later." She shook her head and put her hands behind her head, "Why me though? Having to investigate this damn vigilante bullshit." She started to walk as she complained to herself, "Ugh, I love Cyan but he always puts this stuff on me... maybe because I'm trustworthy?" Kiko let out a sigh, "And I have to work with a rookie, no less... they better pull their weight and then some..."

She put her arms down as she turned a corner, "Still... I've heard some things about this particular rookie. Wanting to climb ranks rather quickly... maybe they'll jump at the opportunity." Kiko arrived at the Finch residence, she sighed, 'Get this over with.' With that, she gave a firm, two knocks, "Hello? Is this where... uh..." She said in a loud voice. She quieted herself as she had to think what the name was again, "What was the name again.. Flinch? No... uh... Grin-- no... uh Finch! That was it." She raised her voice again, "I'm looking for a Finch Arro-- goddamnit, is there anyone whose first name is Finch here??" She said, getting slightly annoyed at herself for not remembering the rookie's name.

 

[AlphaBlueWolf]

Mateo thought the nicknames were cute. Everyone always called him Mateo and Mattie was really cute. Though, it was oddly similar to that reoccurring dream where this disembodied voice called out Matt. No one called him Matt, that's why it was so odd. He didn't recognize the voice either, and there was never any visual to this dream. It's just something he felt like he should know but didn't. Maybe the curse was making him crazy too.

Anyways, Mattie was extremely cute, but Cora wasn't taking well to being called Cory. His fur fluffed up and brushed against Mateo's cheek. "Don't call me-" Mateo put a hand over his mouth and smiled.

But there was one thing Mateo forgot about children. They were always probing you with questions and expecting answers. Some children defied adults while others saw them as beacons of wisdom who knew all the secrets to the world. But Mana was probing him about the worst subject ever. His curse and why he didn't tell people about it. Especially his friends.

He knew he should be honest with them, especially since it could end up putting them in danger, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd be looked at differently. Or maybe they wouldn't want to travel with him anymore. That's how it usually went, Cora being the exception. And he hadn't even given Argyle the chance to react before he'd gotten villagers chasing him with pitch forks and torches.

Mateo sighed and clutched at his sludge arm. "You... you don't get it. Not because you're a kid, but because you're not cursed like I am. Whenever someone has found out, they looked at me differently. I've been chased out of towns and attacked because of it. People I trusted suddenly turned on me. Don't get me wrong, I don't think my group are bad people. I'm just... scared, I guess. I like them. All of them. I don't want to lose them because of this. It's taken too much from me already."




Finch started getting dressed immediately after Skylark left. He didn't want her to be right, and there was no way he was going out in his pajamas. So, he swapped his pajama shirt with his blue shirt and the pajama pants for black pants. Both suitable for work. Then he got to work on the armor plating. He strapped on his arm pads, and then eventually his breastplate. Then his belt, which contained his holster and sword. Standard issue longsword. Lastly, the final touch for his outfit. His cape. Call it a bit childish but he always believed a knight should have a cape. And he'd gotten this cape as a present from his dad when he'd past his test to become an Ironshire guard member.

The cape was very similar in color to his shirt, but on the back stitched in a much lighter color was a bird insignia. A bird with twirling, piercing wings. Most likely because of his name Finch, which happened to be a common bird, but there could've also been a deeper meaning to it. Who knows? He just appreciated the gesture from his dad.

He was about to grab his bow when he heard two firm knocks. Skylark was usually a bang rather than a knock, but he automatically assumed it was her again making his life a living hell just for the fun of it. "Lark, go away! You did your job!" He grabbed his bow which immediately slipped out of his hand when the knocker spoke. Yeah, definitely not Skylark.

He mentally berated himself. He was living in the guard's quarters of course other guards would come knocking at his door. The guard went quiet. Maybe they'd heard him and knew how rude he was. He was making bad first impressions already. The knocker spoke up again, this time sounding annoyed. Yup, he'd blown. They asked about if there was anyone named Finch. He sighed and thought he'd deal with it.

Finch opened the door and was met with a pink haired woman. "Um, yes. I'm Finch. Is there something you need?"